Directors Reject Offer but Talks Still Slated

Members of the Directors Guild of America voted overwhelmingly Thursday night to reject contract offers by the television networks and by film and television producers, union officials said.

Although the rejection by the 8,500-member DGA in meetings here Thursday and earlier in Los Angeles set the stage for what could be the first strike in the guild’s 51-year history, fears of an immediate walkout seemed to ease with more negotiations scheduled.

The membership declined to follow the reluctant advice of the guild board of directors that, while turning down the offer by producers and major film studios, they accept the separate and concessionary contract with the TV networks.

Guild President Gil Cates said 3,294 of the members voted to reject the movie and TV producers’ proposed three-year contact, with only 132 voting to accept. On the network proposal, the vote was 602 against and 148 to accept.

Cates declined to say how many had voted to reject the contracts during Wednesday night’s Los Angeles meeting at the Beverly Hilton or to give a breakdown on Thursday night’s voting by the New York membership.

Cheering Members

Nor were the totals of the two voting sessions made public until they were announced to about 1,000 cheering members who crowded into a ballroom of the Sheraton Centre Hotel here.

The rejection of the pair of proposed three-year contracts was certain to hearten the 2,800 members of the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, who walked off their jobs at NBC at midnight Monday after the company said it was implementing a contract that the union’s leadership had rejected.

The rejection of both contracts authorizes the guild leadership to call a strike whenever it wishes. But union officials indicated that a decision on that had not yet been made. The guild still has a Sunday negotiating session scheduled with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in Los Angeles. No meeting has been arranged with ABC, NBC and CBS on the network staff and free-lance directors’ contract which involves nearly 1,000 guild members.

“We’ll be in touch with the networks next week, tell them we rejected it, and set up a new negotiating session,” said Alan Gordan, executive secretary of the East Coast guild office in New York and chief negotiator in the guild’s talks with the networks.

After the DGA board unhappily recommended on a 10-6 vote that members accept the networks’ proposed contract, despite resulting job losses and rollbacks in working conditions and benefits, there was some angry division in guild ranks and some bitter feelings on the part of NABET.

‘Divide and Conquer’

“They’ll have to examine their own consciences as to why they did it,” NABET spokesman John Krieger said of the recommendation. “They’re just playing into the companies’ hands. It’s divide and conquer.”

The membership, however, did not go along with the DGA leadership.

Max Schindler, an NBC News director in Washington, who represented the network directors, said that some on his negotiating committee felt they could get no more out of the networks, while others thought the networks “had more to offer.” Schindler said that “nobody on the committee thought it was a good contract . . . We felt it was the best possible bad deal.”

Cates, asked Thursday night what he thought about the odds for a walkout, replied: “I don’t know. Certainly, if these things remain on the table, there’ll be a strike.”

A strike by network staff directors and free-lancers would impose a double burden on NBC, which now is attempting to keep its news, sports and technical operations going with 700 management and supervisory personnel pressed into duty as news writers, field producers, camera operators, and into other jobs of striking NABET members.

The directors guild-network talks, in addition to the three networks, covers a total of 14 network-owned stations, including KNBC, KABC and KCBS in Los Angeles.

The guild’s three-year contracts with employers expired Tuesday, but union members have continued working pending developments.

Jay Sharbutt reported from New York and Michael Cieply from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Jack Jones contributed to this article.