TORONTO -- Canada's actors and producers are using an independent facilitator in last-ditch efforts to avoid a court battle that, in addition to challenging a strike, could raise sticky issues between them.
ACTRA called a strike in several provinces on Jan. 8 after the union and orgs repping producers in Ontario and Quebec were unable to agree on terms for a new Independent Production Agreement. The old agreement expired Dec. 31.
In an unprecedented move, ACTRA has offered producers continuation letters that allow production to carry on, in exchange for a 5% wage increase and 2% increase in benefits. ACTRA said all producers of ongoing productions in affected provinces have signed, making this the first "business as usual" strike on record.
Soon after the job action was called, the Canadian Film & Television Production Assn. filed litigation at the Ontario Superior Court challenging ACTRA's status as a trade union, as well as the legality of its collective agreement and the continuation letters.
Hearings are scheduled for today and Wednesday in Toronto.
Both sides appear motivated to circumvent the hearings, because whether or not they allow the strike to continue, they promise to open up a can of worms regarding ACTRA's legal status that neither has wanted to explore in the union's 45 years of working with the current IPA format.
Thesps and producers held secret talks in Toronto for much of last week, in an effort to hammer out a deal away from the public eye. Then on Monday they moved to Montreal to take up formal negotiations, with an independent facilitator going back and forth between them.
But the list of outstanding issues was piling up. The two sides were very close on wages and were said to be looking for a compromise regarding the contentious issue of new-media rights.
ACTRA chief negotiator Steve Waddell said ACTRA also is pushing producers to declare ACTRA a bona fide union and that it would insist the lawsuit be dropped if an agreement is to be reached.
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