The Directors Guild of America and the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, Inc. have reached a tentative agreement on a new National Commercial contract.
The details of the two-year contract, which covers the time period between Dec. 1, 2021 and Nov. 30, 2023, will now go to members for ratification after the DGA’s national board approved the language. Gains for members in the agreement, per the DGA, include a first-year wage increase of 3 percent or 3.5 percent depending on a member’s role and a 3 percent wage increase in the second year of the contract; a 0.5 percent uptick in the employer contribution rate to the union’s pension plan over the term of the contract; a boost to pension and health contributions for most directors due to a 10.5 percent increase in the base pay upon which they are calculated; the addition of Juneteenth as a holiday; and the inclusion of a new, required preparation day for first ADs when “there is a substantial change to the production schedule or shooting boards.”
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“Our Commercial Negotiations Committee negotiated a fantastic agreement coming out of a tumultuous period for the industry,” DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter said in a statement. “This contract contains significant gains for our members and will grow this area of work for years to come.” The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to the AICP for comment.
On the DGA side, negotiations — which began in August and concluded this month — were headed up by Eastern executive director Neil Dudich and a committee of members with commercial experience. At a Nov. 20 meeting, the DGA’s national board voted unanimously to approve the deal. Members will receive more information about the contract and the upcoming ratification vote this week.
Lead negotiator Dudich added in a statement, “Although change is a constant in the commercial industry, one thing that will always stay the same is our determination to maintain the strong commercials contract we have, and steadily improve upon it in a way that makes sense for our members and the commercial producers to thrive together. And I’m proud to say that’s what we achieved in this tentative agreement.”
According to L.A. film office FilmLA, commercial work has shot up in the Los Angeles area by 15.5 percent in the latest quarter compared to a “pre-COVID average” of production between 2016 and 2019. Commercials saw a major boost in production in the second quarter of 2021, with shoot days rising 55.5 percent compared to the first quarter.
