Vancouver: The initial panic over a potential national actors strike seems to be subsiding now that ACTRA National is signing interim agreements while Independent Production Agreement talks continue.

‘We’re giving productions the options to sign on with our last agreement,’ says Alex Gill, director of communications at Toronto’s ACTRA National, which negotiates for performers throughout Canada except b.c.

That means, for example, that even if there is an actra strike beginning as early as July, the big-budget feature The X-Men by 20th Century Fox will remain in Toronto and Disney’s Jackie Chan movie Shanghai Noon will remain in Calgary because they have signed show deals.

B.C. Film Commissioner Pete Mitchell says the two features, along with many other productions including an Alberta-based feature for Paramount, have considered moving their productions to b.c. to hedge against a work stoppage in the rest of Canada.

‘Now the threat is diffused,’ says Mitchell.

Earlier, there had been fears that b.c. would be swamped with production requests it couldn’t fulfill because much the summer capacity is already spoken for.

Both ACTRA National and its affiliate the Union of B.C. Performers are negotiating new and autonomous collective agreements with employers. But while the actra talks with the cftpa, the Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Association and the apftq have been strained and have prompted the union to seek a national strike mandate this month, ubcp has a single outstanding issue to resolve before it heads for a ratification vote.

The situation sets up an odd scenario: ubcp members could approve a contract under the B.C. Master Agreement as their 14,000 actra brethren east of the Rockies walk the picket lines.

Such a predicament would also strain the newly repaired relationship forged by actra and ubcp, longtime foes that have traditionally fought over jurisdiction.

ubcp’s John Juliani admits that in the event of a strike there is the potential for increased polarization between the two unions despite moves to consolidate operations.

‘I’d be less than truthful if I said the distrust [between the two unions] is totally dissipated,’ says Juliani. ‘We need patience and have to work together toward unanimity.’

He says that while the actra and ubcp negotiating goals are similar, the two organizations have different approaches when it comes to the contentious issues of buyouts and residuals. ‘Even the rumor of a strike is enough to scare off business,’ says Juliani.

Complicating ubcp’s position further will be – in the event of an actra strike – figuring out which productions working in b.c. this summer are runaways from the rest of Canada. Will ubcp withhold services on productions that are fleeing the potential actra stoppage? How can ubcp prove that if the producers have been budgeting b.c. as an alternative from the start?

‘I can’t say we’re perfectly clear on how it will work out,’ says Juliani. ‘There is no reason for us to break off negotiations, but we would support actra-struck work. It’a quandary.’ He says it may come down to a moral, rather than political, decision.

‘I hope it doesn’t come to that,’ says actra’s Gill, referring to the prospect of an exodus to b.c. In 1994, during negotiations of its last contract, actra also secured a national strike mandate, but completed talks with employers without a walkout.

actra and employers have been negotiating since October and will continue talks in Calgary June 10-13. Issues include pay increases, use fees and turnaround times.