ACTRA Maritimes Blog

Nova Scotia Strike Date set

ACTRA members in Nova Scotia will join their striking brothers and sisters in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan on February 13th. 

Yesterday, the provincial concilliator issued a “no board” report – which clears the way for ACTRA members in Nova Scotia to walk off sets in fifteen days.  At that time, ACTRA members will refuse to work under the Independent Production Agreement, unless the production has signed an interim agreement with ACTRA.

The ACTRA office is in the process of setting up a membership meeting to inform Nova Scotian members of strike procedure. 

ACTRA members in Newfoundland and Labrador will join the strike on February 15th.  

CFTPA FAILS IN EFFORT TO STOP ACTRA’S STRIKE

TORONTO – The trade association that speaks for Canadian producers lost its bid to stop ACTRA’s strike in Ontario’s Courts today. The CFTPA failed to stop ACTRA’s strike and failed to get an injunction against the continuation letters that ACTRA is offering to producers as a way of ensuring stability in the industry.  
 

The court sided with ACTRA and stated that there was no evidence the continuation letter strategy ACTRA adopted had caused ‘irreparable harm’ to the industry or the CFTPA as the CFTPA had claimed. 
 

The court also ruled that unspecified issues should continue to be litigated before an arbitrator. Arbitrations are often lengthy. Appeals are also possible.
 

ACTRA called on the association to stop wasting time and money and to settle the current strike instead.   More »

Nelvana Voice Work – ALERT

To all Maritimes members and casting agents:
 

We have been alerted by ACTRA Toronto that Nelvana may be shopping voice work for a Japanese animated production (possibly entitled BAKUGAN) around the country in order to avoid the ACTRA strike in Toronto.
 

Please note that this production is struck work and Maritimes members cannot audition for nor accept engagements on this production. 
 

If you are contacted by this production, please contact our office.
 

FIA Supports ACTRA Strike

To ACTRA and its whole membership

Re: 2007 ACTRA strike

The International Federation of Actors (FIA) representing performers’ unions, guilds and professional associations in all continents, wishes to convey its most sincere solidarity to ACTRA and all its membership who are striking, as we write, against the film and television producers’ associations.

Today, we are all Canadians. What you are fighting for is of prime concern to us all. Because this is not just about the acknowledgment of our professional role in the industry and the new media. It is also about our right to live decently of our work, to have a family, a house and a future.

Internet use is where the big dollar is and producers know it. Soon enough, this is where most of our revenue will originate. Denying performers the right to be fairly remunerated for film and television
production exploited on the Web is a slap in the face. And it is unethical. It is about time that corporate responsibility makes its way in the entertainment business too.

We need to stand united and resist the wearing down of our rights. We have advised all our affiliates to say no to any relocating production and instruct their members not to accept struck work.

We wish you success and hope to see you back to work soon, with the enthusiasm you have always had.

Yours in solidarity,

Tomas Bolme                         Dominick Luquer
President                               General Secretary

On-line Petition to the CFTPA

A film and television industry online petition calls on the CFTPA to end its reckless and irresponsible dispute with ACTRA so the industry can get back to work.

Sign the petition and please forward to your industry contacts.

http://www.petitiononline.com/toukuz46/petition.html

ACTRA: Open Letter to CFTPA

ACTRA issued the following open letter to the Canadian Film and Television Production Association today.

Dear CFTPA,

Today, the CFTPA and ACTRA should be sitting down together and working out a joint strategy on the following:

-The current state of the CBC, an issue we should be collectively engaged in

-The purchase of Alliance Atlantis funded by an American company, a development with ramifications that we should at least discuss

-Shaw Communications has unilaterally pulled out of the Canadian Television Fund, followed yesterday by Vidéotron. These developments may lead to the collapse of the Fund. Should the CTF collapse, our industry may well follow

-Perhaps most importantly, the upcoming seven commissioner appointments for the CRTC. The government has signalled its intention to stack the commission with ‘market-friendly’ people, a cause for real concern.

Instead, your lead negotiator for the CFTPA will be sitting today in a courtroom a few chairs away from ACTRA’s chief negotiator, watching while our two organizations spend tens of thousands of dollars fighting in court.

We are fighting over an attempt by the CFTPA to obtain an injunction, fundamentally aimed at your own CFTPA members, that would make ‘interim agreements’ illegal and force ACTRA into an unlimited general strike, shutting down all film and television production across Canada.

We think we have a pretty good case, and that this waste of time and money will fail – as all of the CFTPA’s other legal manoeuvres to date have failed.

But that’s not why we’re writing to you today.

We’re writing to say this:

In light of the developments in the industry as set out above, we call on you today to do what you know needs to be done to end this dispute.

-Settle the pay as we’ve discussed.

-Collect the better language on low-budget production, reality TV, documentaries and other issues we’ve tentatively agreed to.

-Sign a real collective agreement binding on both parties.

-And let’s send these complex, undefined, uncertain digital media issues to a joint committee and, if necessary, to mediation.

Producers and performers have far more in common than we have dividing us on the real issues facing our industry. Instead of building a common front on those issues – work that should be receiving our undivided attention – we are fighting in the corner.

Think about it.

Yours truly,

ACTRA

Key Strike Issues

Fair rate increase
ACTRA members earn almost 30% less than SAG members on our own sets. We want to be paid fairly when working side-by-side with SAG performers. We want a rate increase that ensures we don’t fall further behind.

Fair compensation for internet use
We want to be compensated fairly for use of our work on the internet. We will not have our work put on the internet for free. ACTRA has proposed to put this issue to a special committee to make recommendations.

Producers’ associations’ legal threats to ACTRA’s legitimacy
The producers’ associations need to stop their legal threats and attacks against ACTRA and get down to the serious business of negotiating a fair agreement for performers and the industry.

ACTRA MARITIMES SET TO JOIN NATIONAL STRIKE

January 22, 2007 – HALIFAX, NS.  On Monday, January 8th, ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) declared a legal strike against film and television producers in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. This was followed by ACTRA members in Quebec declaring a strike against the producers on Wednesday, January 10. With the exception of British Columbia, ACTRA’s Independent Production Agreement is applicable in all provinces.

Due to Nova Scotia Labour Code requirements, ACTRA must go through mediation and conduct a Labour Board-supervised strike vote before performers in Nova Scotia can be in a legal strike position. Until that time, the Independent Production Agreement that expired on December 31, 2006 continues to be in effect for Nova Scotia-based productions and performers.

With the assistance of a provincial mediator, ACTRA entered into mediation with the CFTPA (Canadian Film and Television Producers Association) in Nova Scotia last Friday January 19th. ACTRA Maritimes could be in a legal position to strike as early as 6 February, 2007. More »

Producers Stonewall ACTRA

January  22, MONTREAL – Canadian producers stonewalled mediation with ACTRA today, refusing to budge from ‘internet-for-free’ proposals that ACTRA has rejected for the last three months.
 
“The CFTPA has lost its compass, its common sense, and its ability to close a reasonable agreement,” said Stephen Waddell, ACTRA’s Chief Negotiator.
  
“ACTRA did everything we humanly could to bridge the remaining issues. The CFTPA/APFTQ simply kept repeating their positions intransigently, even with the assistance of one of the best mediators in the country,” Waddell added.
  
The two sides met in Montreal with the help of a Vice-Chair of the Ontario Labour Board, Mary Ellen Cummings, acting as a private facilitator.
   
Waddell said that ACTRA will be considering its approach to this dispute in light of CFTPA/APFTQ’s time-wasting.
  
Tomorrow the parties will meet again in a Toronto courtroom. “We are very confident of our case,” Waddell said.

Support for ACTRA’s Internet Position Growing

TORONTO – Support for ACTRA’s position on the internet is growing in the media including on the editorial pages of Playback, Canada’s film and television industry newspaper, and the Montreal Gazette.
 
Playback editor Mark Dillon writes, “ACTRA’s idea to put the new media agreement on hold for another year is reasonable: another year of experimentation could only help everyone have a clearer idea of what’s at play before both sides come to terms. In fact, before making a commitment that could look unfair in the near future, why not put it off until the Americans are willing to show their cards? Both countries will endlessly measure their respective agreements against the others, anyhow. In the meanwhile, negotiations could continue on a project-by-project basis.” More »