NYT: Directors Guild Ratifies Contract

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/business/media/21strike.html?ref=business

Published: February 21, 2008

Members of the Directors Guild of America overwhelmingly voted to ratify a new three-year contract with movie and television production companies, the union’s president, Michael Apted, said in a statement on Wednesday.

The vote came after leaders of the 13,500-member union endorsed a tentative agreement reached in mid-January with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. That agreement established guild coverage of work for new media, set payments for movies and shows sold on the Web at a rate higher than those historically paid for home video distribution, and laid groundwork that contributed to a tentative contract between the production companies and striking screenwriters.

The Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East have called off their strike, but writers have not yet completed their ratification vote. A spokeswoman for the directors guild declined to disclose the exact vote on the contract, which goes into effect July 1.