DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter Expresses Support For IATSE & Teamsters; Warns About “Looming” AI Challenges – DGA Awards

Despite the progress that the guilds made with studios last year, DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter says the fight isn’t over.

“Now it is the time to support the IATSE and Teamsters in their upcoming battle,” said Glatter in her opening speech at the 2024 DGA Awards, “We won’t be satisfied until we all have fair contracts that reward all of us for our work — creating a vibrant, sustainable industry that fairly values everyone’s contributions.”

“But we can’t fool ourselves into thinking that is the only struggle ahead,” she continued, “the challenge of Artificial Intelligence is looming in front of us all.” 

“We were proud to be the first labor union, in any industry, to establish protections against the potential abuse of AI.  Films and TV shows will continue to be made by living and breathing Directors and ADs, UPMs and Stage Managers. And our sister Guilds established their own important protections for their members,” said Glatter.

“But this is only the beginning, we are not stopping our efforts to make sure you are protected. We are working directly with Congressional leaders to establish guardrails that protect our work from theft and any mutilation that will tarnish our reputations. We are also fighting censorship that will suppress and silence the stories we want to tell,” she told the Beverly Hilton ballroom.

“Add that to the increasingly international scope of production, mergers and consolidation and a general retraction of work by the studios and streamers and so many other issues – we have never needed the strength and protection of the DGA more,” Glatter added.

Glatter’s remarks come in the wake of the DGA making several retroactive additions to their film & TV contract with studios more than six months after hammering it out. One of the major provisions included giving directors a streaming performance bonus that matched that of the WGA.