The union representing Canadian actors won’t be going on strike any time soon after reaching a tentative deal with the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA) and the Institute of Communication Agencies.
ACTRA, the union which represents about 21,000 domestic performers, agreed to terms on a new three-year National Commercial Agreement after nine months of negotiations.
The new agreement will enable marketers and agencies to produce more commercials with larger cast productions in Canada, an important measure to keep large-budget Canadian commercial shoots from going offshore, said Ron Lund, president and CEO of the ACA.
“The Canadian industry is ailing, and the ability to repatriate those commercials that were going offshore is very important,” he said. “Now there will be more work and we get to do more commercials here…and more roles for actors and performers.”
In addition, payments for new-media distribution were capped and ACTRA reduced the payment rate for original new-media products to encourage more production.
ACTRA members will now vote on the new 17-page agreement, which includes an average 2.5% pay increase in each of the three years of the deal, and an eight-hour workday (down from nine hours). Lund expects the deal to be approved within the next 40 or 50 days.
In mid-September, ACTRA began to poll its members on a strike mandate to revive stalled negotiations with domestic advertisers.
The last National Commercial Agreement had expired on June 30, 2007…As reported by the Marketing Magazine.