![]() ![]() ![]() Knox also claims ICA proposed an immediate 8 per cent wage increase but was rejected by the union.Īlistair Hepburn, ACTRA’s executive director, said the union has filed a complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board, alleging ICA and several of its ad agencies bargained in bad faith. It would force foreign advertising agencies to become NCA signatories and follow the contract’s rules when it came to union actors, such as payment requirements and how long an advertising agency could use an actor’s image – instead temporarily using the proxy signatory ability of a payment company. According to him, negotiations broke down after ACTRA would not agree to an amendment ICA proposed. Scott Knox, chief executive officer and president of ICA, said those proposals were never discussed. Representatives from both ICA and the ACTRA told The Globe and Mail they would like to return to negotiations, but they appear to be at a stalemate.ĪCTRA alleges ICA came to the bargaining table with proposals that would see wages reduced by 60 per cent, and that eliminated benefits and retirement plans. The ICA is disputing claims that union actors are being barred from commercial work with their clients, alleging instead that ACTRA is pushing its members away from those jobs. But without ICA’s client list, actors say, there hasn’t been enough work to go around. In May, the ACA and ACTRA agreed to a one-year extension of the agreement without ICA it will be up for renewal in June, 2023. The contract, which must be renewed and ratified every few years, affects any ACTRA member (which has a membership base of 28,000) who does commercial work in Canada. Prior to April, the National Commercial Agreement had been in effect for 60 years, held together by its three signatories: ACTRA, ICA and the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA). “It sets a precedent that I feel like is already really prevalent in our society, which is that we don’t really as a society care about our art or where it comes from,” he added. Since negotiations collapsed, he said he has been pushed to take less lucrative work with lower budget productions, and may have to find a second job. Commercial work kept him afloat financially at the peak of COVID-19, he said, with between two and three auditions coming in each week. Brown, who has appeared in television shows Dark Matter and Nikita. “It’s a pretty horrible feeling,“ said Matthew G. Their union, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), has expressed concerns that this will open the door for advertising agencies to hire and underpay non-union actors for what are typically higher-end productions. The affected actors say they are being locked out from doing commercials with ICA’s lengthy list of clients, which include the Canadian government and corporations such as Walmart, Google and McDonald’s. Unlike an ordinary contract, a collective agreement is bargained between a registered union representing multiple employees and the employer, rather than one individual. The National Commercial Agreement (NCA) dictates terms and conditions for actors, securing higher rates, retirement contributions and a multiemployer benefit plan. Talks to renew a collective agreement fell apart April 26, when one of its three signatories, the not-for-profit Institute of Canadian Agencies (ICA), allegedly walked away from the bargaining table. ![]() Log In Create Free AccountĪ months-long labour dispute between the Canadian actors’ union and a not-for-profit association representing some of the country’s largest advertising agencies appears to have no end in sight, leaving tens of thousands of commercial actors struggling to make ends meet. ![]()
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