ACTRA : "It Doesn't Hurt Until It Happens To Me"

ACTRA representatives reached out via social media and encouraged ACTRA union members to vote 'yes' on a mandate to strike if the NCA (National Commercial Agreement) contract negotiations in 2022 proved to be less than satisfactory. 

The strike mandate would go through but it was doubtful that ACTRA would be telling the  members the percentage by which it passed. 

It’s highly unlikely that ACTRA will release the information on how many members would be eligible to vote and how many bothered to vote. 

Any member who asked for that information would probably end up getting a form letter that was reminiscent of the one they got when they asked those questions about the IPA (Independent Production Agreement) contract.

It wouldn't have surprised anyone if ACTRA came up with a variation of the 'Strike lite' that ACTRA went through when Karl Pruner was the ACTRA Toronto President. 

Many of the people who bothered to vote would vote 'yes' on the NCA strike mandate.  

That would be a comparably small number of people overall given ACTRA's history of dismal voting turnouts

19 voters represented 1% of all the ACTRA union members across Canada ( with the exception of the UBCP/ ACTRA branch which has its own IPA ) who voted on the 2013-2015 IPA contract.

More ACTRA members nationwide would be eligible to vote on an IPA contract than on an NCA contract.

Less than 2000 people in the entire ACTRA National membership that was estimated to be around 22,000 at the time voted in the 2013 IPA.

The vast majority of ACTRA members who are eligible to vote don't even bother to cast a ballot. 

They don’t vote because they've wrapped their minds around the idea that ACTRA will do whatever ACTRA is going to do regardless of what the union members think or feel about it. 

ACTRA is in the self-serving habit of confusing cynicism that's borne out of the members' continual disappointment with the direction that the leadership of their union has been taking them with voter apathy. 

How many ACTRA members have been duped into believing that a great many ACTRA union members have been participating in ACTRA’s alleged 'democratic' process?

How many ACTRA members truly believe that the majority of ACTRA union members are on board with everything that ACTRA’s leaders have been doing in the name of the membership?

The leaders of ACTRA don't want the membership to see how many ACTRA members aren’t voting.

They also don't want the members to see how many ACTRA union members weren't eligible to vote. 

It would not be to the leadership’s advantage if the membership learned that 1% represented as few as 10 voters. 

ACTRA enacted the 'Attachment to the Workplace' rule in 2018. 

That rule has resulted in many ACTRA union members becoming ineligible to vote on an upcoming NCA contract.

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Art Hindle, ACTRA Toronto member and former ACTRA Toronto Councillor, encouraged ACTRA members to vote 'yes' on an NCA contact strike mandate:

"...but NEVER have those (session) fees tried to be slashed in half nor ACTRA jurisdiction threatened."

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Why wouldn't 'they' play hardball and do everything in their power to slash the session fees in half in 2022 ?

ACTRA sent a clear message that ACTRA is open to betraying the most vulnerable members within the membership to get what self-serving members like Art Hindle want when ACTRA negotiated a substantial decrease in the number of full ACTRA rate background jobs in the Background Count on a large scale commercial in a previous NCA contract.

The number of full ACTRA rate bg jobs in the Bg count on a large scale commercial was reduced from 50 to 30 in the 2017 NCA contract.

The pay rate for 20 Full ACTRA rate background jobs was slashed by 58%. 

Why wouldn't ‘they’ push the idea of going back and forth between using union talent and non-union talent on a case by case basis?  

That’s exactly what ACTRA has been allowing non-signatory agencies to do since 2008.

Non-signatory agencies have been ‘opting in’ through a third party loophole in the NCA contract that allows them access to ACTRA performers when it suits their purpose.

The non-signatory agencies that use the third party loophole aren’t committed to using ACTRA performers in their commercials in the future.

Those non-signatory agencies have been getting more bang for their buck by using less expensive non-union bg performers to do general crowd work ( eg.- sports arenas, concerts, etc.) in large scale commercials that wouldn’t require a recognizable ACTRA union member. 

If you filmed a Toronto Raptors game and saw a crowd of fans in the stands who weren't members of ACTRA  you wouldn't look at them and say they didn't 'act' like a real crowd of fans. 

(You've taken way too many basketballs and a few hockey pucks to the head if you'd suggest that they would HAVE to be ACTRA members to be believable)

There was a time when you could tell the difference between a union commercial and a non-union commercial in terms of quality.

Those days are gone. 

Welcome to NOW.

That's why the non-union competition was able to move in and effectively take over the commercial industry in BC. 

ACTRA Toronto has been putting off telling the ACTRA members the truth about how many commercials were being shot non-union in the province of Ontario.

Decades of pretending that the non-union sector hasn't been a viable threat hasn’t served the ACTRA Toronto union membership well.

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Ellie Harvey, the current President of the Union of British Columbia Performers (UBCP/ ACTRA) , encouraged ACTRA members nationwide to vote 'yes' on a strike mandate:

"When there's struck work here (B.C.) any non-union person who works on it will NEVER be allowed into OUR union".

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The UBCP/ ACTRA President  wouldn't be allowed to vote on an upcoming NCA because she hasn't worked on a commercial in over 12 years. 

(Unless, of course, the union leader is making an exception to her own union’s rule because she happens to be the UBCP President)

All of Ellie Harvey’s prior years of experience wouldn't count for anything according to ACTRA’s exclusionary "Attachment to the workplace" rule. 

 ACTRA's 'Attachment to the workplace' rule would render her ineligible to vote on an upcoming NCA contract.

Conversely, an ACTRA member who had joined the union less than two years ago and did nothing but general background work on three union commercials under the current NCA would be eligible to vote on an upcoming NCA contract.  

Ellie Harvey's statement about ACTRA never allowing non-union people who worked on commercials during a strike into the union is absurd. 

ACTRA branches nationwide would be more than happy to let a non-union performer who worked during a strike/ shutdown join ACTRA in the future because it would take that non-union person out of the non-union talent pool. 

Joining ACTRA is no more a guarantee of getting work than it is a guarantee of quality nowadays. 

It varies from ACTRA member to ACTRA member and from ACTRA production to ACTRA production.

A talented non-union performer couldn't work on non-union ( ACTRA's competition ) commercials if they became a member of ACTRA. They couldn’t prove how great commercials could be made without ACTRA members if they became a member of ACTRA. 

It wouldn’t be any money out of ACTRA’s pocket to let non-union performers join ACTRA.

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 David Gale, President ACTRA Toronto, encouraged ACTRA members to vote 'yes' on a strike mandate:

"They want a deal where they can work both sides of the fence...to make some commercials union and some using professional ACTRA performers. That is a challenge to our jurisdiction and a race to the bottom where good becomes 'good enough'"

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Of course ‘they’ want a deal that allows them to work 'both sides of the fence'. 

ACTRA has a deal that allows non-union people to work 'both sides of the fence' on ACTRA-sanctioned productions and on non-union productions.

ACTRA allows non-union bg performers to work on ACTRA-sanctioned tv shows and ACTRA-sanctioned movies in the IPA (Independent Production Agreement).

ACTRA’s AABP members don’t have the option to work on union and non-union productions.

The AABP (ACTRA Additional Background Performers) members are recognised in ACTRA's Constitution but their designated jobs on ACTRA-sanctioned tv and film productions are open to being filled by non-union background performers. 

Non-union actors can buy a permit from ACTRA to work on ACTRA-sanctioned tv and film productions and not have to join the union. 

ACTRA’s deal with the non-signatory agencies that ‘opt in’ to gain access to ACTRA performers through a third party NCA contract loophole with no commitment to use ACTRA members in the future allows ACTRA to play ‘both sides’ of the fence at the signatory agencies’ expense.

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Past President of UBCP/ ACTRA and current ACTRA National Vice President Keith Martin Gordey encouraged members to vote 'yes' on a strike mandate:

"The demands from the other side have been egregious. I don't think they've been bargaining in good faith with us and frankly I think what we're up against here is union busting."

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Really? Egregious?

What Keith Martin Gordey can’t bring himself to think about is 'Supply and Demand'. 

ACTRA isn't the only game in town anymore, ( especially in British Columbia ).

The other side's faith is in whoever and whatever serves their best interests just as Keith Martin Gordey’s faith is in whoever and whatever serves his own self-interest. 

Allowing non-signatory agencies to use ACTRA members when it suits a non-signatory agencies purpose and benefits ACTRA is ( and always was ) egregious.

ACTRA isn’t serving the best interests of the signatory agencies when ACTRA grants the non-signatory agencies access to ACTRA performers.

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ACTRA Toronto union member Peter Keleghan encouraged ACTRA members to vote 'yes' on a strike mandate:

"Well, it turns out that the negotiations to renew our National Commercial Agreement have been going on for just about a year.

That, of course, can only mean one thing. jiggery boogery. And it's not coming from our side." 

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Says Peter Keleghan, a relatively successful Canadian actor (with a failing vocabulary) who is benefiting from the financial hardship of the ACTRA union members who are being prohibited from working on non-union productions when they aren't being offered work on ACTRA-sanctioned productions.  

Why wouldn't the signatory agencies seek an adjustment to the rates in the NCA contract on behalf of their clients? 

The non-union competition has improved to the point where the viewers can’t tell the difference between a union commercial and a non-union commercial. 

The only clue that they were watching an ACTRA-sanctioned commercial would be the presence of an ACTRA union member who's familiar to the general public ( eg. - Gordon Pinsent ). 

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Joy Tanner, ACTRA Toronto Councilor, encouraged ACTRA members to vote 'yes' on a strike mandate:

"...unlike our siblings out in BC who've lost the majority of their work to the non-union world..."

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Which PROVES that non-union commercials can be every bit as good as, and in many cases better than ACTRA-sanctioned commercials.

The companies that advertise their products wouldn't waste their money on non-union commercials that weren't up to snuff.

Truth be told, there have also been some atrociously bad ACTRA-sanctioned commercials that many would presume to be non-union because of their amateurish quality. 

The question isn't " How did the non-union competition manage to take over and dominate the market in BC.?" 

The question is "Why hasn't the non-union competition taken over in Ontario long before this?" 

The answer could simply be that the companies that advertise their products in Ontario had to see what the non-union competition could do elsewhere (BC) before they'd gamble on going with the non-union competition. 

They had to be shown that it doesn't have to be union-made to be good. They saw for themselves that great commercials could be made without ACTRA.  

Joy Tanner can't relate to what the background performing ACTRA members went through when they saw the Background Count on a large scale commercial reduced from 50 Full ACTRA rate bg jobs to 30 Full ACTRA rate bg jobs in the 2017 NCA. 

It didn't affect her personally when background performing ACTRA members saw their pay slashed by 58% in an NCA contract that she likely voted 'yes' on.

She doesn't do background work. 

Joy Tanner brought up the 2007 IPA strike where the number of full ACTRA rate bg jobs in the Bg Count on tv shows and movies was substantially reduced.

She spoke as if the settlement worked out well for everybody concerned, including the ACTRA union members who do background work.  

Far too many ACTRA members are in the selfish habit of turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to what has been happening to the most vulnerable members in the union. 

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Linda Kash, ACTRA Toronto Councillor, encouraged her fellow ACTRA union members to vote 'yes' on a strike mandate:

" ...we are urging you, as Council members, and also as ACTRA members and performers alike, to please vote 'yes' on a mandate to strike because, let's be honest, there is no replacing a pro."

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Says the ACTRA pro who promoted an online contest where non-union people were encouraged to send in audition tapes to replace an ACTRA pro like Linda Kash as the spokesperson for the Philadelphia Cream Cheese company.

Professional actors and casting agents were telling ACTRA members not to submit an audition tape because they would be providing free content for an online advertising campaign for the Philadelphia Cream Cheese company. 

Those professional actors and casting agents would go on an on about ACTRA union members not being in the business of working for free. 

The audition tapes that didn't stand a chance of winning the job ended up becoming a part of the campaign, in the same way that the auditions of the contestants who didn't stand a chance of winning on "American Idol" became a part of an extremely successful American tv show. 

Weren't there enough qualified performers within ACTRA to choose a replacement for a union pro like Linda Kash? 

Linda Kash reached out to non-union people to fill a job that supposedly only self-described ACTRA pros like Linda Kash would be capable of doing.

Let’s be honest. Linda cashed in on selling out her fellow ACTRA union members with ACTRA’s full blessing.

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The form letter announcing ACTRA’s mandate to strike:

Hello ACTRA Members,

Thank you for the overwhelming support you have shown your National Commercial Agreement (NCA) Negotiating Committee. You are receiving this E-mail because you were eligible to cast a ballot in the NCA referendum vote.

This strong vote will support the efforts of your NCA Negotiating Committee as we continue bargaining. ACTRA has additional bargaining dates scheduled with the ICA/ACA later in April and we remain optimistic we will achieve a fair agreement.

The NCA referendum voting period opened at 9:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, March 24, 2022, and closed at 5:00 p.m. ET, Wednesday, March 30, 2022. The vote was conducted by online ballot through ElectionBuddy Inc., a high-integrity cloud-based voting platform. ElectionBuddy Inc. assured your ballot was treated with the utmost confidentiality. At the conclusion of the voting period, ElectionBuddy sent the official results to ACTRA.

Please watch for important updates about NCA negotiations over the coming weeks and continue to support your bargaining team who are working diligently to protect working opportunities of professional performers and our advertising partners.

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ACTRA members are just going to have to take their union leadership's word for it that the support was "overwhelming". 

So much for transparency.

It could have been a 52% 'yes' vote and ACTRA would still call it "overwhelming", if only to get the membership to imagine that it was in the usual 90% plus range.