The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are currently in negotiations with the u.s. advertising industry to avoid a commercial strike, scheduled for March 31. The potential work stoppage in the u.s. would have a direct affect on the Canadian commercial production industry.

‘actra has an agreement, whereby if productions are struck in the u.s. and attempt to work in Canada and we can identify them as runaway productions, we do not work on them – and it works reciprocally,’ explains Alex Gill, communications director at the Toronto office of actra, the u.s. union’s Canadian sister.

Stephen Waddell, national executive director of actra confirms the agreement with both sag and aftra, in place since 1985. ‘[In the event of a strike], undoubtedly, there would be a movement by agencies and advertisers to try and take the work outside the u.s.,’ he says.

The question then arises how actra will be able to determine the true motivation for any particular job coming north. Great Canadian crews and exchange rates are oft cited motivations for putting commercial production in the hands of Canucks.

Says Waddell: ‘We have to establish a process for determining whether a production has attempted to evade the strike by coming here.’

Waddell admits that Canadian commercial producers are ‘seeing an opportunity to grab more work’ in the event of a strike. However, he says, ‘From the union perspective, we have to and we will show solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the u.s.’