Vancouver: With an amendment to their current master collective agreement, ACTRA members can now continue performing in any production that is underway when the current actors’ IPA expires Jan. 16, 2002 or if the union goes on strike.

The change – which was approved by ACTRA’s board of directors, the CFTPA and the AMPTP in late August and does not need formal member ratification – comes on the heels of a controversy involving Daredevil, a $92-million 20th Century Fox/ New Regency feature originally scheduled for production in Montreal that moved to Vancouver (where ACTRA does not have direct jurisdiction) to avoid a potential work stoppage.

Before the amendment, productions serviced by ACTRA and working through January were technically vulnerable to a labor disruption starting as early as Jan. 17. (The Union of BC Performers, in contrast, works under a separate collective agreement that already includes a ‘continuation’ clause and protects productions underway in B.C.)

Steve Waddell, national executive director of ACTRA, says the amendment applies only to qualified productions that are signatories to the current master, have posted the appropriate security (to ensure performers are paid), and have agreed to pay performers retroactively to Jan. 17, 2002 any wage differentials created by a new contract.

At press time, it was undecided whether qualifying productions needed to be in actual production or only needed to have opened a production office for prep.

However, Waddell says the ACTRA board continues to have concerns that talks of strikes or contract troubles are premature when formal proposals (expected by next month) have not been put to the producers. He adds that in 60 years of operations, ACTRA has never been on strike.

‘It’s in our interest to have production come to Canada,’ says Waddell.

His comment, meanwhile, comes as sharp contrast to other industry news sparked by the Screen Actors Guild – an organization that was quick to take ACTRA’s support when a U.S. actors strike loomed earlier this summer.

On Aug. 16, SAG’s national board jumped on the runaway production bandwagon in Hollywood and agreed to sign on to a controversial petition calling Canada’s production incentives illegal trade practices. The petition, sponsored by The Made in USA Foundation and the Film and Television Action Committee, also asks for the application of countervailing duties on film and television product imported from Canada to the U.S.

‘SAG’s endorsement of a petition calling for countervailing tariffs against Canada is isolationist protectionism at its worst,’ says Waddell. ‘ACTRA believes that an open and frank dialogue with SAG would lead to a better understanding between sister performer unions on this crucial issue. If it cannot be accomplished earlier, ACTRA will be talking with SAG officials in a previously scheduled meeting of international performer unions in October in New York.’

Already dismissed by most of the Canadian industry as illegal and unworkable, the countervailing duties initiative has already been rejected by other unions including U.S. locals of IATSE as unfair to IATSE’s 12,000 Canadian union members.

Lance Simmens, SAG’s national director of government relations, admits that sister unions don’t always agree and, in this case, SAG’s board wants the trade question investigated.

‘We want to explore if the subsidies that Canada offers [U.S. producers] constitute illegal subsidies,’ says Simmens. ‘We want the International Trade Commission and the U.S. Trade Administration to do an exhaustive test and address the issue in a serious and thoughtful way. We want no stone unturned. ‘

He calls the petition a national initiative rather than just a campaign based in California where the politicking and public protesting has taken place. He points to production clusters in New York, Florida, North Carolina, Texas and Illinois that also suffer from the effects of runaway production.

SAG’s board also supports the creation of Canada-inspired U.S. subsidies as a tactic to stem runaway production.

Introduced by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators on July 31, Senate Bill 1278, if passed, would allow for a 25% wage tax credit on U.S.-based productions with labor costs between US$200,000 and US$10 million. The credit would increase to 35% if productions are based in low-income communities and extend to small business supply companies (such as caterers) with full-time employees.

The next FTAC meeting is Sept. 6 in Hollywood.

-www.ftac.net