For about half an hour on Friday, the strike was called off. And then Hollywood put the brakes on.
Since the beginning of the year, the Alliance of Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), the national union representing 21,000 Canadian performers, had been on strike in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Quebec. The union called a strike after the expiration of the previous Independent Production Agreement with the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA), a group representing major Canadian producers. At stake: fees, of course, to bring Canadian actors’ salaries up to the American Screen Actors Guild (SAG) rates, and also some kind of an agreement for actors to get paid when their work is broadcast in new media, especially online. The internet has turned out to be the big stumbling block.
“There is definitely a problem between the Canadian broadcasters that they expect independent producers to throw the digital rights in for free, that’s an issue to be sorted out between the producers and the broadcasters,” says Gary Vermeir, the local ACTRA branch representative. “But, you know, if there was no money to be made on the internet then we wouldn’t be seeing the iPhone, and we wouldn’t be seeing the box that Steve Jobs just rolled out that connects your plasma TV to your computer. You wouldn’t be seeing Telus offering porn to its cell phone customers. It’s all going there, and when our work is exhibited on the internet there has to be compensation for it.”
In Nova Scotia, the local branch of ACTRA came on board with the national strike on February 13, though talks in Toronto were ongoing. On Friday afternoon, word came in that an agreement had been hammered out, amounting to an approximately 10 percent pay increase over the next three years, plus residuals from the rebroadcasting of performers’ work on the internet. ACTRA accepted, pending ratification from its members.
It seemed too good to be true, and it was. Almost right away the studios in Los Angeles cried foul. Their concern was that a precedent for new media fees would be set to compromise their negotiating position in upcoming talks with American unions, such as SAG and the Writers Guild of America. So, while representatives for the CFTPA didn’t return The Coast’s calls, a film business source who prefers to go unnamed says that CFTPA chief negotiator John Barrack flew down to LA over the weekend to ease the big studio heads’ worries. After all, as much of the Canadian film and television industry provides services to the big American dollar, “the CFTPA are Hollywood’s representatives in Canada,” says the source.
As The Coast was going to print, the word is that an agreement to end the strike satisfying the LA interests has been reached, but locally, there is still concern for the health of the industry and the year ahead. As things are planned so far in advance for film and television production, even if things are resolved this week, the labour stoppage will have already wiped out the spring pilot season and anything that might shoot in the year’s traditionally busiest time, the summer, is iffy.
Kris Gilbert is the marketing manager Atlantic region for William F. White, one of the leading suppliers of technical equipment to the industry. Having moved to Nova Scotia from Toronto to be closer to the wealth of creative individuals working here, she is none the less concerned about production slowdown, both from our friends to the south and in Canadian content. “This is a global issue, it’s not just a Canadian issue, and it won’t get resolved in a week,” she says of the conflict over the internet residuals. “I also believe that producers are getting the short end of the stick because they have no option but to stay home.”
“We have helped grow the industry here and establish a talent base, where the producers from the States are happy to cast and work with, and that could change,” says Brindle Peralta of The Cassidy Group, a local model and talent agency. “That’s the worst case scenario. To be positive about it, we’ve always lived in hope in this industry.”
And of the fees from new media broadcast for performers? “It had to be addressed,” she says. “I do see both sides of it, but for us, it’s scary.”
Visit Bloghorn for ACTRA strike updates.
This article appears in Feb 22-28, 2007.