gird for negotiation

Montreal: Commercial producers won’t reveal their formal bargaining position as they prepare to enter a new round of negotiations with Union des Artistes, but they are expected to raise a number of contentious points with the Quebec performers guild. Among their key concerns are the lack of flexibility in hiring non-union talent and the high cost of residual rates for broadcast commercials given extensive airplay.

A three-year, 105-page collective agreement between producers and advertisers and the uda expired Jan. 27. The two sides are expected to table their respective bargaining positions in the next two weeks.

Michel Raymond, a commercial producer and president of Montreal production house La Fabrique d’Images, says a ‘closed-shop’ clause in the old agreement prohibits producers from using non-uda talent in French-language radio and tv commercials.

He says this leads to a severely limited choice in talent for ‘character’ commercials and spots featuring visible minorities. ‘And foreign producers, who increasingly shoot here because of advantageous exchange rates, often find the uda talent pool limiting,’ he adds.

According to Raymond, the uda only has a ‘token’ representation of cultural minorities among its membership. ‘It’s always the same three or four people. Casting has become a joke; it’s ridiculous.’

Anne-Marie Piran, president of l’Association des producteurs d’agences de publicite, representing producers at 35 Quebec ad agencies, says producers would like to see the uda offer the same kind of ‘sensitivity to creative issues’ as actra.

Piran, who is the new director of broadcast production at agency bcp, says ‘in principle, the negotiations shouldn’t be too difficult,’ in part because of the ongoing efforts of a joint producers/uda professional committee which meets regularly to iron out grievances.

The committee includes representation from the 200-member Association of Canadian Advertisers, representing clients and 80% of national advertising; Institute of Canadian Advertising, representing agencies outside Quebec; and Association des Agences de Publicite du Quebec, representing most of Quebec’s larger ad agencies.

The volume of commercial film production in Quebec is pegged at over $30 million annually.

Maurice Brisebois, aca senior vice-president, says neither side wants to reveal its formal negotiating position at the moment, but adds the aca hopes to limit the number of contentious issues raised in the negotiations.

Brisebois says producers don’t want a repeat of the last round, which started in 1990 and took close to two years to complete.

He says producers wanted talks to start in October, but the uda asked for a mid-March start-up. Talks are now expected to begin late this month or early April.

‘We want to be sure creative is not adversely affected and that costs remain reasonable,’ says Brisebois.

The uda membership has given its executive a sectorial mandate to negotiate with commercial producers, and is expected to name Marie Fiset as its lead negotiator. Fiset is an unknown to the joint producers committee, says Brisebois.

Another key issue expected to be aired during the negotiations is the high cost of residual payments.

Agency producers here do not have the right to buy out actors’ residual rights, nor are they, in strict legal terms, entitled to undertake foreign location shoots where buyouts are made.

But the residual issue isn’t only about money.

The concern is that monetary issues will continue to affect creative decisions, says one commercial producer.

In recent years, he says, the trend in commercials here has been away from storytelling vignettes with large casts to using as few as one or two actors.

‘The problem is that uda sees the Quebec market as a big market. In reality, we have a small market and everyone has to work together to build it up,’ he says. LRB