THE UNION representing 28,000 Canadian actors and radio artists reports that 28,000 commercial workers have been locked out from commercial acting work for over a year.
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) has been looking to renew their agreement with the Institute of Canadian Agencies (ICA) for over a year, during which they say actors have been locked out from work opportunities while the ICA has been hiring non-union actors for less pay and poorer working conditions.
The union has accused the ICA of bad faith bargaining and union busting.
‘The ICA wanted us to agree to an opt-in and opt-out option which meant that they wanted to be able to work with union members when they wanted as they saw fit, and non unions when they wanted, and of course as a union we would never agree to something like that,’ said Eleanor Noble, President of ACTRA.
‘We would like to get back to work and continue the partnership that we’ve had for 60 years plus.’
The parties are currently negotiating a new agreement, but the union says the ICA has been using non-union labour throughout the lockout.
‘It’s not like as a union member that you can just go okay, well, I’ll go work off the card. The agreement’s in place. You’re a union member, you can’t take work, that’s non-union,’ said Kate Ziegler, an ACTRA member and long time voice actor.
Ziegler was a full time voice actor for years before the lockout and says that she has lost all of her steady income as a result – including multiple national campaigns.
She said: ‘I think the public needs to understand that the cultural sector of the country is under serious threat.
‘We are the labourers who create the commodity of culture, of film and television, of movies, and commercial work is a huge part of what makes the media machine move and makes content.’
Ziegler added that because they are a group of gig workers, they are at an increased risk of disparate working conditions.
‘We’re a gig workers union. And there are other unions in the country made up of dependent contractors that go out and do these jobs.’ Ziegler said.
‘I think this could have reverberations across the country.’
Kaylah Zander-Nunez has been a commercial actor for four years and said that she was making a steady income before the lockout.
‘A lot of people lost their incomes overnight,’ Nunez said. ‘Just because it is gig work doesn’t mean it’s not my career.’
Nunez adds that corporations benefit from the free labour that many actors do that could be protected within a union environment.
‘That collective agreement protects these companies from doing whatever they want When you do a union commercial, the union will keep track of how much that commercial has aired and where it’s aired,’ said Nunez.
Nunez adds that anti-scab legislation could have played a role in ending the lockout.
‘I really want the people to pressure the feds to move on the anti-scab legislation. It could have ended this lockout months ago,’ Nunez said.
Ziegler adds that the latest contract proposals include options for residual concessions that have left some members feeling confused and discouraged.
‘We’ve been locked out for a year and holding the line, with the price of everything from groceries to rent and mortgages skyrocketing.’
Ziegler says that the current deal on the table gives employers – agencies and brands – the upper hand.
‘The tentative agreement extends the NCA (National Collective Agreement) for another year but it also offers bundled residual rates that reduce our minimum pay. And it doesn’t end the lockout,’ Ziegler said.
‘At a time when union members across North America are seeing the labour movement gaining new ground and taking a stand, there is a growing number of ACTRA members who want to fight too, in complete solidarity with our union. As labour leaders are saying around the world: “Enough is enough”.’
- The intersection of Highways 7 and 11 was the scene of a raucous roadside rally last Thursday morning, as several dozen Canadian Union of Public Employees CUPE 561 transit workers and their supporters gathered with placards and banners, drawing honks and shouts of support from rush-hour commuters eager to see an end to the strike that includes a fair deal for workers.
On Day 74 of the full walkout by Fraser Valley transit workers, this highly visible public demonstration reassured CUPE 561 members that Valley residents appreciate the work they do and support their fight for wages in line with other transit workers, and for retirement security.
‘The public support has been wonderful, and this morning in Mission we really felt it,’ said CUPE 561 strike committee member and rally organiser Elizabeth Roux. ‘All the people who approached us were very supportive, and the honks were many.’
More than 60 people – including CUPE BC General Vice-President Tony Rebelo and Regional Vice-President Sara Manchester, along with COPE, MoveUP, BCGEU and United Steelworkers activists – gathered at the intersection drawing local and provincial media coverage.
Following the hour-long rally, the members dispersed and visited four bus stops in downtown Mission for another couple of hours, speaking to the public about the strike issues.
- Hundreds of nurses from municipalities across B.C. descended upon Vancouver last Wednesday, demanding that the province lives up to promises made in an April agreement.
The BC Nurses’ Union and the province agreed to a three-year deal that includes ‘record-setting compensation’ for B.C. nurses and mandatory ratios, according to the union.
The new ratios will be one-to-one for critical care patients, one nurse for every two mental health patients, one-to-three for specialised care patients, and four-to-one for palliative care patients.
The union organised last Wednesday’s rally to hold the government accountable to its promises and highlight ongoing staffing and workloads issues.
‘The shortage has reached such dire levels that we regularly see temporary closures of emergency rooms in communities around B.C.,’ said BCNU union President Aman Grewal.
‘Nurses are wanting the government to keep the promise for minimum nurse-to-patient ratios to keep the patients and citizens of B.C. safe.’
Emergency rooms across the province have been severely impacted, especially ERs in Northern B.C., Northern Vancouver Island and, more recently, at the Surrey Memorial Hospital.
‘I have been saying it for more than a year and a half now — we are in a severe nursing staffing crisis,’ Grewal said.
‘The shortage has been years in the making.’
Back in April, during the agreement between the union and province, B.C. announced $750 million had been allocated to address the nurses’ staffing crisis.
On Wednesday, the union president said the province needs to start addressing the issues now, as health services have been impacted across B.C., sometimes leading to unsafe care for patients.
‘We need those ratios. We need them to recruit, retain and return nurses who have left the profession. We have internationally-trained (nurses), who are wanting to work; they are here in B.C. but cannot work as they are delayed in the credentialing and licensing process.
‘We need those nurses in the system now. We were told the process would be expedited. We want to see results,’ Grewal continued.
Meanwhile, around 500 nurses gathered outside the Hyatt Regency Vancouver and marched to the waterfront.
The president of the PEI Nurses’ Union, Barbara Brookins, is calling on the province to review its mobile mental health service and 24/7 mental health and addictions phone line.
‘We’ve been running with one to three RNs (registered nurses) in the programme as well as the … social worker positions,’ Brookins said.
‘We just want to know what the follow-up is and who actually knows whether or not there have been RNs and social workers performing the tasks.’
The province launched the mobile mental health response service back in October 2021, contracting Medavie Health Services Inc. to operate the programme.
The service includes three mobile mental health units that respond to people in need of mental health care, as well as operating a 24-hour phone line people can call to speak to a registered nurse or social worker.
Brookins said that under that contract, there should be six full- and part-time nursing positions and six social workers assigned to the project.
But, she said, many of those positions have been vacant since the programme started.
The province says that as of May 26, nine of the nursing and social worker positions on the teams were filled and recruitment was underway to fill three vacant positions — two for social workers in Montague and Charlottetown and one for a nursing role in Montague.
Donna Galloway, manager of the mobile mental health programme, said all staff members rotate working shifts, answering calls on the mental health phone line or going out in the mobile mental health vehicles.
However, PEI president Brookins says she’s tried to get information about how the mobile mental health teams are being staffed, but can’t get a straight answer from the province.
Since the programme began, Galloway acknowledges the team hasn’t been staffed to a full complement.
‘You’re kind of stuck trying to create a new programme where there isn’t an abundance of people to fill those positions,’ she said.
Galloway started working with the mobile mental health team when it first launched in 2021. Back then, she claimed it was harder to recruit new staff because people were still unsure about the stability of the service.