TORONTO – Canadian actors union ACTRA has already applied for labour mediation, just one day into contract talks with Canadian film and TV producers.
"Canadian producers told revered Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent and all Canadian performers that they deserve a 25% pay cut, no residuals and worse working conditions," says the press release. So Pinsent, at the front table of ACTRA’s bargaining team, took his revered-ness and walked out yesterday.
Less than two days of negotiations with Canadian producers highlighted the need for a neutral third party to assist the talks, said the actors.
"We put forward a reasonable set of proposals in these negotiations," said Richard Hardacre, national president of ACTRA, in their press release.
"What we got back from producers was proposals to roll back our pay by 10 to 25%, a proposal to gut our residuals, proposals to make working conditions much worse and numerous other unacceptable proposals."
The English and French producers fired something of a shot across the bow last Friday when it warned ACTRA that media times have changed and so must the next collective agreement.
The parties are so far apart, says ACTRA, that it "concluded the negotiations are going to need help to get to a new agreement," says the release.
Not so, say the producers. “CFTPA /APFTQ have put considerable effort into developing a forward thinking model which is aimed at adapting our labour relations environment to deal with today’s production realities.” explained John Barrack, chief negotiator for the CFTPA. “The explosion of fact-based, lifestyle and reality programming coupled with the emerging new platforms, make it necessary to rethink how we do business. We are disappointed that ACTRA is refusing to engage us at the bargaining table. I certainly don’t want to see this resolved through the media.”
“We are a little puzzled with ACTRA’s decision to walk away from the bargaining table after having only exchanging proposals and having ACTRA refuse any discussion. It is unfortunate to have squandered two full days of what might have otherwise been productive bargaining.” added Julie Patry, attorney, director, industrial relations, APFTQ.
“We have always had a great partnership with ACTRA and we hope to continue working together to ensure that we build a stronger industry by creating more work opportunities for producers and ultimately for ACTRA members," said Guy Mayson, president and CEO, CFTPA “We would welcome the opportunity to have an open and frank dialogue to address any questions or concerns ACTRA may have with what we feel are reasonable proposals.”
There are no further meetings currently scheduled. The current collective agreement between the CFTPA/APFTQ and ACTRA expires on December 31, 2006.
