#ACTRA : The More The Scarier
"There is a lot of talk about making/forcing/asking all non-union members to become Actra members to eliminate that talent pool and that would be wise - that would be the ONLY WAY out of this, for all talent to be in one union.
But how long do you think it takes for that to get organized and to happen and what might be the motivation for non-union talent who right now owns the (commercial) industry for giving up what they have in order to align themselves with a group of more experienced and more qualified talent who are likely going to put them out of work?"
- ACTRA Toronto Councillor ( May 2023 ) Facebook
V-----------------( an appropriate response to the statement above )---------------V
I doubt that the ACTRA Toronto Councillor would have any problem with having their name published as the author of the statement above. They posted the statement on Facebook under their own name where thousands of people could see, copy, and share the comment with others.
I chose not to publish the ACTRA Toronto Councillor’s name because the message is more important than the messenger.
Judge the message on its own merits.
I made a point of mentioning that the comment was written by an ACTRA Toronto Councillor to show that ACTRA Toronto is as divided at the top as it is at the bottom in regards to the direction that the leaders of ACTRA have been taking the union.
There are those who would condemn the ACTRA Toronto Councillor for speaking up and challenging ACTRA rules, policies, and tactics that have been hurting rather than helping the ACTRA Toronto membership at large.
The outspoken ACTRA Toronto Councillor was the 'exception to the rule' when it comes to speaking up about what the people in positions of power at ACTRA have been doing wrong and, by all indications, have every intention of continuing to do wrong.
It takes courage to speak truth to the people in positions of power in ACTRA who will threaten to use ACTRA's rules and policies to silence those who dare to speak the truth about them.
Unfortunately for the ACTRA Toronto membership at large, the outspoken ACTRA Toronto Councillor who spoke truth to power was hopelessly outnumbered by the bobble-headed sycophants on ACTRA Toronto Council who would go along to get along with the people in power who have been responsible for the rules, policies, strategies and tactics that have been hurting rather than helping the membership.
The outspoken ACTRA Toronto Councillor made the decision not to run for another term because they were drowned out by the ACTRA Toronto Councillors who gave nothing more than ‘lip service’ to the people in power.
The outspoken ACTRA Toronto Councillor compared their time on ACTRA Toronto Council to having all of their teeth pulled.
That’s an appropriate comparison considering how toothless the ACTRA Toronto Councillors have been when it comes to addressing the concerns of ACTRA Toronto members.
While I respect the outspoken ACTRA Toronto Councillor for openly expressing their disgust in regards to ACTRA Toronto Council's many failings, I believe they are very much mistaken when they suggest that "making/forcing/asking all non-union members to become ACTRA members" would be wise.
Making/forcing/asking all non-union members in Ontario to become ACTRA Toronto members would be catastrophic for the ACTRA Toronto membership at large.
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"Eleanor Noble, an actor and president of Canadian acting union ACTRA, said the increased expectation of self-taping auditions have had a direct monetary impact on performers, who only earn $10,000 a year on average in Canada."
- from"Self-tapes are Hollywood's new normal for auditions. Not everyone is happy" written by Jackson Weaver/ CBC/ Feb. 27, 2024
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If we take ACTRA National President Eleanor Noble at her word about performers earning an average of $10,000 a year in Canada it only stands to reason that making/forcing/asking all non-union members to become ACTRA members would cause a serious drop in the earnings of the average ACTRA union member.
An ACTRA union member who was normally making an average of $10,000 a year could see their yearly earnings drop to $8,000 ( or less ).
An ACTRA member who was making an average of $5000 a year could see their average earnings drop to $3,000 ( or less ). They wouldn’t qualify for CERB relief if a COVID variant shut down the film & tv industry in Canada in the future.
Making or forcing all non-union performers to join ACTRA would make it that much more difficult for the average ACTRA union member to get hired to work in the precarious Canadian film, television, and commercial industry.
The average ACTRA union member isn't famous. They don't have a "name" or an extensive resume filled with acting roles that would convince prospective employers to hire them.
The number of ACTRA union members who would settle for a lot less than they deserve in order to secure employment in the film & tv industry would rise exponentially as a result of a large group of non-union performers joining the union.
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"When it comes to AI we are looking at playing the long game. We simply do not believe we have the bargaining power right now during an ongoing ( commercial ) lockout to get the protections we need into the NCA.
They would be weak and watered down. But we do have bargaining power when it comes to our film and television agreement, the IPA, which will be renegotiated later this year.
That is where we believe we can build on the SAG-AFTRA precedence and get strong lasting protections against AI.”
- NCA Bargaining Committee Member ACTRA Montreal President Simon Peacock
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The impact of A.I. is going to lead to even more compromises/sacrifices being made by an increasing number of ACTRA union members who will be competing for a reduced number of on-camera jobs in Canada.
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“AI will entrap us in a matrix where none of us know what’s real. If an inventor lacks empathy and spirituality, perhaps that’s not the invention we need.”
- SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher ( SAG - AFTRA Awards speech )
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An inventor doesn’t need to have empathy and\ or be spiritual to invent something that everybody believes they ‘need’.
An inventor’s one and only reason for inventing something that everybody supposedly ‘needs’ could be to get rich.
What about the benefits of AI for the SAG-AFTRA members who have been left wanting as a result of ‘runaway productions’?
What about all of the lost jobs that U.S.-based SAG-AFTRA members could be getting back because of AI?
The Canadian film and tv industry would be turned upside down and inside out if it became cheaper to shoot American productions in the U.S. with A.I. than it would be to leave the U.S. and shoot American productions in a Canadian city that’s doubling for an American city.
More American productions being filmed in the U.S. because of A.I. would mean more American jobs for more SAG-AFTRA members in the U.S.
SAG-AFTRA members wouldn’t condemn the use of A.I. if it was responsible for reversing the flow of 'runaway productions'.
They would embrace and celebrate the use of AI.
SAG-AFTRA’s leaders and SAG-AFTRA union members wouldn’t feel the least bit sorry for any of the ACTRA union members in Canada who would lose most of their film and television work as a result of a mass exodus of American film and television productions from Canada.
The American SAG-AFTRA members would be overjoyed to get those jobs on American productions back.
What about all of the new jobs that SAG-AFTRA members would be getting in addition to the old jobs that they would be getting back?
American movies and American tv shows are dubbed into other languages by performers in other unions in other countries.
Many of the voice actors in those other countries sound nothing like the American SAG-AFTRA members who originally performed the role.
They don’t sound like the English speaking American SAG-AFTRA members speaking another language.
The American SAG-AFTRA union members who originally played the roles in the American productions that are being watched around the world could have their voices translated into any number of languages with AI.
The voice artists in other countries who have been ‘doing the talking’ for those American SAG-AFTRA members would lose a lot of work as a result of AI. Their loss would be the SAG-AFTRA membership’s gain.
The SAG-AFTRA members who originally played the roles in the American tv shows and American movies that are airing around the world would reap the financial reward of having their AI-translated voices used instead of the real life voice of a voice artist in another country.
And the American SAG-AFTRA member wouldn’t have to do any of the physical labour associated with re-recording their voice.
The living SAG-AFTRA union members ( or the estates of deceased SAG-AFTRA members ) would be paid a fraction of what it would cost to hire a voice actor in another country to dub the production into another language.
That’s money that the U.S.-based SAG-AFTRA union members wouldn’t be getting without the use of AI; money that could go towards the health care benefits of the living SAG-AFTRA members who originally performed those roles.
The loss of employment opportunities in Canada due to advancements in A.I., the fact that ACTRA’s leaders prohibit ACTRA union members from accepting work on non-union productions when they aren't getting hired to work on union productions, the very real possibility of non-union commercials taking over the commercial industry in Canada, and a considerable drop in the average ACTRA member’s yearly income as a result of an influx of non-union performers joining ACTRA are compelling reasons not to make/force/ask all non-union performers to become ACTRA members.
With all due respect to the outspoken ACTRA Toronto Councillor who has made some very astute observations in regards to how ACTRA leaders have been failing the ACTRA membership, they were being a 'useful idiot' for ACTRA's leaders when they wrote that it would be wise to turn all non-union members into ACTRA members.
It would be counter-productive to the point of being self-destructive.
It shouldn’t be done even if it could be done.
The outspoken ACTRA Toronto Councillor became a ‘useful idiot’ when they failed to recognize how they have been manipulated into believing union propaganda that would empower the union leaders and leave every single ACTRA union member that much weaker.
The corporations that would hire non-signatory agencies to make their commercials with non-union performers wouldn’t be wiped out of existence as a result of ACTRA’s membership drive.
Adding more ACTRA members would just add up to a lot less work for the majority of ACTRA members.
ACTRA’s call to boycott every corporation that doesn’t use ACTRA union members in their Canadian commercials is just plain pathetic.
It’s an empty threat being made by empty-headed buffoons, and everyone, including the corporations recognize it as such.
The corporations know that there are those who would threaten to boycott their products who aren’t their customers and who would never become their customers.
It’s akin to a group of vegetarians threatening to stop buying hamburgers at Wendy’s if they use non-union performers in their commercials.
Losing a never-would-be-a-customer’s patronage isn’t going to hurt a corporation’s bottom line in the slightest.
It would be interesting to learn how many of ACTRA’s union leaders are customers of the very corporations that they’re calling on everybody else to boycott.
ACTRA National Executive Director Marie Kelly and ACTRA National President could both be long time customers of Rogers, one of the companies that ACTRA is calling on everybody to boycott.
Every Executive Director and every President of every ACTRA branch across Canada that has been encouraging all of their members to boycott corporations that use non-union performers in their commercials could be doing business with those same corporations.
They aren’t going to advertise the fact that they’re two-faced hypocrites.
It wouldn’t surprise anyone anywhere if all of the SOL unemployed ACTRA zombies who have been showing up at the protest rallies in front of the headquarters of various corporations are customers of those same corporations.
SOL unemployed ACTRA zombies aren’t going to switch to corporations that employ ACTRA union members in their commercials if they’re getting a better deal at a corporation that employs non-union performers in their commercials.
They may be SOL but they aren’t crazy.
The general public can’t tell the difference between union and non-union commercials.
They couldn’t care less if the performers in the commercials between the movies and tv shows that they watch belong to a union or not.
Non-signatory agencies have won top marketing awards with performers who are not members of ACTRA during the commercial lockout.
You’re not going to find any of those great non-union commercials among the commercials that ACTRA has been promoting on ACTRA’s website but that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.
The ACTRA union members who don’t know about those great award winning non-union commercials because ACTRA isn’t telling them about them are completely irrelevant. ACTRA union members aren’t doing the hiring.
The corporations that would be interested in hiring the non-signatory agencies that are responsible for making those award winning non-union commercials are extremely important. They are the corporations that aren’t hiring ACTRA members.
If the performers in a union with 30,000 members only earn an average of $10,000 a year in Canada ( according to ACTRA National President Eleanor Noble ) how much would those same performers earn in a union that had 50,000 union members?
ACTRA supplies the talent that appears in ACTRA-sanctioned productions.
ACTRA doesn't invest any money in the productions that hire the talent that gets work in ACTRA-sanctioned productions ( tv shows, movies, commercials ).
Increasing the supply of ACTRA members will NOT lead to an increase in the demand for the services of ACTRA members.
It will only lead to an increase in the number of chronically unemployed 'starving artists' who won’t have the option to earn an income elsewhere ( non-union productions ) when they can’t get work on a union production.
A 20,000 member increase in the ACTRA membership would allow ACTRA's leaders the benefit of exploiting the narrative that they are fighting for 50,000 Canadian performers.
Claiming that they would be fighting for 50,000 Canadian performers doesn’t ensure that ACTRA’s leaders would actually follow through and fight for 50,000 Canadian performers.
ACTRA Toronto has a membership of 15,000+. That’s over half of the overall ACTRA membership nationwide.
What would happen if 20,000+ non-union members joined ACTRA nationwide and 10,000+ of those 20,000+ non-union members joined ACTRA Toronto?
A 25,000+ ACTRA Toronto membership in the precarious Canadian film, tv, and commercial industry where there isn’t enough work to go around for 15,000+ members would implode from within.
Why would anyone in Ontario trust ACTRA Toronto’s union leaders to take care of the concerns of 25,000+ ACTRA Toronto members when they have been doing such a piss poor job of addressing the concerns of 15,000+ ACTRA Toronto members?
Why would anyone in any of the ACTRA branches across Canada trust ACTRA National Executive Director Marie Kelly and ACTRA National President Eleanor Noble to take care of the concerns of 50,000+ ACTRA members across the country when they’ve been doing such a piss poor job of addressing the concerns of 30,000+ ACTRA members?
The ACTRA union leaders’ self-serving axiom about there being "strength in numbers" ignores just how much weaker every ACTRA member's chances of securing employment in the precarious Canadian film, tv, and commercial industry would become as a result of 20,000+ hungry new 'artists' being added to the ranks of ACTRA.
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"There are none so blind as those will not see"
- British author John Heywood (1546 )
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
– George Santayana, The Life of Reason ( 1905 )
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So many ACTRA union members have been, and will continue to be, neglected and betrayed by their manipulative, power-hungry union leaders because they are in the self-destructive habit of ignoring and forgetting all of the times and ways that they, and other ACTRA members like them, have been neglected and betrayed by their union leaders in the past.
ACTRA's union leaders are more interested in milking the 'labour movement' for all it’s worth than they are in dealing directly and honestly with specific issues that affect the ACTRA union membership.
The members of other unions that are putting on a public show of supporting ACTRA would rise up against their respective union leaders if their union leaders treated them in the way that ACTRA's leaders have been treating the average ACTRA union member.
ACTRA’s leaders are bragging about getting the Ontario Federation of Labour’s support as if it means something; as if it proves that everything that ACTRA’s leaders have done, and everything that the leaders of ACTRA are planning to do, is beyond reproach.
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"Your suggestion to open up the attachment to the workplace requirement would need to be applied across all agreements. Our lawyers tell us our agreements would risk being contested and if brought before the labour board we would lose. Stability is important in our industry"
- ACTRA Toronto President Theresa Tova ( posted on Rachel Notley’s Twitter Page April 27, 2019 )
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The OFL ( Ontario Federation of Labour ) will throw their support behind any union that would be in favour of making everybody in every industry a union member, regardless of whatever damage that union may have done and may be doing to their members with their rules and policies.
It’s very telling that the OFL is supporting a union that has a democracy-cancelling union rule ( ACTRA’s ‘ Attachment to the workplace’ rule ) that the labour board would not approve of.
The labour board wouldn’t have to look very hard to find other ACTRA rules that they would have a problem with.
It speaks volumes about the OFL’s priorities.
The OFL couldn’t care less if ACTRA’s leaders are doing right by the ACTRA union members. If the OFL cared about the ACTRA members they would be chastising and distancing themselves from ACTRA’s leaders instead of throwing their support behind them.
The ACTRA members who have been, and will continue to be negatively impacted by ACTRA’s rules and policies are nothing more than ‘collateral damage’ as far as the OFL is concerned.
The OFL’s primary objective is to turn every worker in Ontario into a union member.
Any damage that has been done, is being done, or will be done to any of the workers along the way to making every worker in Ontario a union worker is “for the greater good” in the OFL’s self-serving quest to turn every worker into a union member.
The power hungry OFL leaders are milking their relationship with ACTRA for all it’s worth for what they can get out of it.
And ACTRA’s leaders are milking their relationship with the OFL for all that the power-hungry leaders of ACTRA can get out of it.
The OFL’s leaders don’t know about ACTRA’s more questionable rules and policies because the OFL’s leaders have neglected to do their due diligence OR the OFL’s leaders did do their due diligence and they couldn’t care less if ACTRA has any rules and policies that the labour board would not approve of.
The labour board isn’t an enemy of the ACTRA union members.
The OFL’s support for ACTRA rings hollow.
The OFL doesn’t know any better because they’re following an unwritten “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy OR the OFL knows better because they did their research and they decided to support ACTRA’s leaders anyway.
Nobody of any consequence is taking the OFL’s support seriously because everybody suspects that the OFL is filled with the kind of people who would vouch for a union like ACTRA no matter what.
If the OFL had asked ACTRA’s leaders the questions that ACTRA’s leaders have gone out of their way to avoid answering, and the OFL became aware of the rules and policies that have been hurting rather than helping the ACTRA members, and the OFL didn’t have any problem with the harm that those rules and policies have been doing to the members, what would that say about the OFL’s so-called concern for the ACTRA union members?
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“Everyone that you fight is not your enemy and everyone who helps you is not your friend.”
―Mike Tyson
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