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.
“These fruitless legal strategies are diversionary tactics designed by the CFTPA to avoid facing the real issues up front and head on,” Waddell said. “It’s time for the CFTPA to accept ACTRA’s four-point offer to settle all outstanding issues and get this agreement done, so that the industry can get back to work.”
In another blow to the CFTPA’s legal strategy, conciliators from both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador issued ‘no board’ reports which will permit ACTRA to extend its strike to those provinces. These reports were issued over the strenuous objections of the CFTPA which claimed that the conciliators had no jurisdiction to go forward with the reports. The CFTPA lost similar legal battles at the federal level and in the province of Ontario earlier this month.
