TORONTO – While actors union ACTRA has issued a number of releases over the last several days detailing its dismay with contract negotiations – or lack thereof – the producers groups (CFTPA and APFTQ) say they want to stay out of the media.
ACTRA issued recent press releases saying that the U.S. Screen Actors Guild are backing their Canadian counterparts, not to mention the United Steelworkers, the International Federation of Actors, and Canadian talent agents, said to be "in shock" over producer demands.
"In a statement, the Talent Agents and Managers Association of Canada (TAMAC) said they were shocked by producer demands for ‘proposed rollbacks and the introduction of less-than-scale fees for all types of productions, with no regard to Canadian content,’" says the TAMAC statement released by ACTRA.
The CFTPA and APFTQ have not responded to the recent ACTRA missives, instead posting a message on their web sites which says:
"There has been a lot of noise and smoke with regard to the IPA negotiations with ACTRA, to which the CFTPA and APFTQ have made a conscious decision not to respond. From the outset the CFTPA/APFTQ stated that we will not negotiate in the press or respond to rhetoric. However, we have fulfilled our obligation to correct misinformation and misunderstanding on the part of ACTRA with the issue of several news releases," it reads.
"Members should be advised that the CFTPA/APFTQ are meeting with ACTRA on November 14 for a sidebar discussion in an effort to break the current deadlock. Any comment or conjecture prior to this meeting is premature. As a result the CFTPA/APFTQ is not in a position to provide detailed membership updates, or comments to the Media, until we have a complete and definitive outline of the current negotiating conditions."
