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B C actors union votes to extend contract with American producers

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Television News Movies Local News Local Arts Entertainment

Guild sees benefit in offering labour stability

Published Jul 21, 2023  •  Last updated 1 hour ago  •  3 minute read

Photo of Ellie Harvie.
UBCP/ACTRA president Ellie Harvie said the union members favoured stability in the end and vote yes for a one-year contract extension with American and Canadian producers. Photo by Courtesy of UBCP/ACTRA /Courtesy of UBCP/ACTRA

Hollywood North has some labour peace in its future as Vancouver TV and film unions — including actors — approved a proposal from American and Canadian producers to extend their respective labour agreements to March 31, 2025, in return for a five per cent wage increase.

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Once the votes were counted it was announced on Friday that 78.5 per cent of the 8,000-plus actors who are members of the Union of British Columbia Performers/Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (UBCP/ACTRA) had agreed to extend the contract with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP).

“It was important to know that our members favoured delaying our negotiations in favour of stability for the year,” Ellie Harvie, UBCP/ACTRA president, said in an email.

The one-year extension applies to the B.C. Master Production Agreement and will begin April 1, 2024. Voting on the extension, along with the actors, were the B.C. Council of Film Unions, which includes IATSE 891, IATSE 669, Teamsters 155 and the Directors Guild of Canada B.C. Provincial labour laws required all groups to vote yes in order for the extension to proceed.

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The vote here comes during the ongoing Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild of America  strikes that have shut down the industry.

“Right now is a challenging time for many of us in the entertainment industry. We are now collectively in a very difficult position to exercise long-term vision and a greater scope of multiple issues that have been building against us within the rapidly changing industry, while at the same time being faced with the urgency for a renewal of workflow as soon as possible,” said Leah Gibson, an actor and Victoria native who splits her time between B.C. and Los Angeles. “We need both immediate security and long-term protection.

“With the one-year extension in place, we must remain hopeful that our collective industry concerns are addressed with serious measure,” added Gibson who is a member of both the B.C. and American actors’ unions.

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photo of Leah Gibson
Actor Leah Gibson, who splits her time between B.C. and Los Angeles, says actors and others in the TV/film industry faced with the current labour unrest “need both immediate security and long-term protection.” Photo by Arlen Redekop /PNG

When news of the B.C. contract extension vote came out, more than 70 Canadian actors — only a handful of whom have UBCP/ACTRA voting rights — wrote an open letter July 10 asking B.C. union members to not agree to the extension. The letter suggested that by doing so, the B.C. actors were not standing in solidarity with the Screen Actors Guild and would impede current contract talks.

“It’s absolutely the right thing to do,” Vancouver actor, writer and showrunner Jonathan Lloyd Walker said in an email.

“A bunch of Canadian celebrities who rarely work under a Canadian contract any more signed a letter urging us to vote no. They did so without ever calling the UBCP or taking a minute to understand why this extension doesn’t undermine SAG or WGA strike solidarity. If anything, it ensures we get to negotiate after those much bigger guilds do. Better that they create precedents with the AMPTP for big issues like AI than we try to do so.”

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Postmedia reached out to SAG for comment on this development but got no response.

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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 13: A sign reads 'Unions Stand Together' as SAG-AFTRA members walk the picket line in solidarity with striking WGA (Writers Guild of America) workers outside Netflix offices on July 13, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Members of SAG-AFTRA, Hollywood?s largest union which represents actors and other media professionals, will likely go on strike after a midnight deadline over contract negotiations with studios expired. The strike could shut down Hollywood productions completely with writers in the third month of their strike against Hollywood studios.

Remaining B.C. productions face shutdown as U.S. actors join screenwriters on picket lines

Canadian actor Martin Short is one of 74 UBCP/ACTRA members to vote down a contract extension.

A-list actors sign open letter urging B.C. actors to vote down contract extension

Synnove Godeseth, owner/director of Vancouver’s Location Fixer Productions, says her business will be faced with 'big decisions' if the actors' and writers' labour action continues into late fall.

Hollywood strikes put multibillion-dollar B.C. industry on hold

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