Vancouver: Famous Players and Cineplex Odeon have offered a new contract to 60 locked-out projectionists in b.c. following an attempt to resolve the protracted dispute by Industrial inquiry commissioner Stephen Kelleher.

However, the union has dismissed the new offer as ‘a piece of garbage’ that does ‘nothing to resolve the dispute.’

The new lowered contract offers a wage range of $14.50 and $15.50 per hour for large multi-screen theatres and $10 per hour for complexes with fewer than seven screens. Except for the $10 rate, the offer is the same as the contract ratified by Ontario projectionists this week. Ontario projectionists lost jurisdiction over cinemas with fewer than seven screens.

‘(Cinema operators) simply want non-union people working there,’ says Damon Faulkner, president of the B.C. Projectionists Union. He says he’ll distribute the offer to members and the union will consider a counter proposal. ‘The companies have no intention of bargaining.’

Cinema spokesman John Nixon says the current offer reflects the contract in Ontario. The previous contract, withdrawn in May, would have made this jurisdiction the highest paid in the country, he explains. It included a three-year rollback; the new offer represents an immediate hit of more than 60% for most projectionists. ‘The companies want a collective agreement that recognizes the simple nature of the projectionist’s work,’ says Nixon.

In b.c., projectionists previously earned between $31 and $38 per hour.