While other industries might go for the throat when times get tough, the entertainment industry is a savvier beast. Despite recent downturns in production, the CFTPA has struck deals with directors, writers and actors (the latter wrapping up months before the previous agreement expired), and it is working to bring IATSE’s technicians into the fold.

In what all sides are describing as a sign of maturity in the industry, the CFTPA recently forged agreements with the Directors Guild of Canada (expiring 2006), the Writers Guild of Canada (2005) and ACTRA (2005). ‘We’ve been able to do it, do it early and send a signal that we’re here and we’re open for business,’ says CFTPA national VP of industrial relations and counsel John Barrack.

Barrack says his members are worried, however, about creeping tech costs and other uncertainties created by promulgated agreements (those agreed upon shoot-by-shoot) with the camera guild. ‘We want to move ahead and bring those into line with everyone else,’ says Barrack. ‘Work is underway to bring IATSE into the fold, as it were. I think ultimately that’s going to have to happen.’

The CFTPA and ACTRA went into negotiations eight months prior to the expiration of the previous agreement and managed to find common ground in a few weeks. ACTRA national executive director Stephen Waddell says the process was more amicable than it had been in other rounds. During negotiations in ’95 and ’99, ACTRA fought hard for significant changes to the collective agreement. This time around entailed small gains, with the two sides tackling issues including casting directors, turnaround times, and improved positions for principal performers.

‘We are now looking at making more incremental changes or amendments to the agreement,’ says Waddell. ‘As a consequence, we are able to find the middle ground a little more easily.’

The two parties have yet to tackle arrangements for low-budget, non-fiction projects (i.e. reality programs). As might be expected, producer concerns revolve primarily around rates, especially those with stipulations that state actors must be paid the full day rate for each episode shot, even if several are shot on the same day.

Observes Barrack: ‘What my members say to me is that they would love to use ACTRA members, but they can’t afford to.’ For his part, Waddell says ACTRA is willing to work on the issue, given evidence of the current agreement’s failings. The two sides have until the end of the year to come to terms.

The WGC also addressed the low-budget production issue during its negotiations. WGC executive director Maureen Parker says her members agreed to new rates for documentary series with budgets under $90,000 and feature films of less than $750,000, and they made gains in other areas. These include creative rights, increased insurance and retirement contributions for story editors and consultants, and stronger ties linking writers to productions.

‘We were trying to consolidate our collective agreement and build on [earlier negotiations], but we knew that we weren’t going to make huge strides like we had made earlier,’ Parker notes. ‘It just wasn’t the climate for the big stuff, such as jurisdiction enhancement, this time out.’

In fact, the WGC had almost no trouble with the CFTPA this time around. The problem, in Parker’s eyes, lay in a lack of unity between the CFTPA and the APFTQ, the Quebec producers union. In previous years, the CFTPA and the APFTQ had negotiated with the WGC all at once, but this year the two producer bodies could not see eye to eye. As a result, the WGC had to do two separate rounds of negotiations, which led to two slightly different agreements.

While the agreements were struck independently, both expire on the last day of 2005, and Parker remains hopeful that a single round of bargaining can be achieved with all parties present. She does, however, expect tough sledding next time around.

Meanwhile, the first steps toward bringing the cinematographers guild on board came in the form of a letter of invitation from the CFTPA to IATSE Local 667 (Eastern Canada) and Local 669 (Western Canada) to discuss the possibility of a national long-term agreement.

While the two sides have not talked, IATSE director of Canadian affairs John Lewis says he is not necessarily averse to the idea – and there is precedent. In 2002, technicians Local 873 in Toronto signed a three-year agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for TV production, following the U.S. example where IATSE, under international president Thomas Short, wrapped up most production centers under the Hollywood Basic and Area Standards agreements.

The change, Lewis notes, would mean increased stability. ‘People need to know how to budget, particularly in television work for series that are going to last a few cycles… [And] if stability assists producers in budgeting, the benefits of that are more production and more work. Local 873 has seen an increase in its television work, and I think that is largely attributed to them executing and ratifying the three-year term agreement.’

While stability between unions and producers might create more work domestically, the soaring Canadian dollar is becoming a threat to imported production. ‘If the dollar keeps going up,’ observes Barrack, ‘I’m not sure that we’re not going to have to go back to all of the unions and guilds and say: ‘What do we do about it?’ I know that’s not something anyone is really thrilled about doing, but if the dollar heads towards $0.80 [$0.76 at press time], then I think we’re going to have to consider pegging the rates in the agreements to the dollar.’

ACTRA’s Waddell is against the idea of revisiting rates, as he sees fluctuations in the dollar undermining the stability the sides have created. ‘Producers, and primarily U.S. studios, are more concerned about the predictability of conditions,’ he notes. ‘If they are going to send multimillion-dollar films and TV projects into Canada or elsewhere, they are going to want to know what their fixed costs are.’

Meanwhile, there are challenges on the horizon, and negotiations in 2005/06 are already looking ominous, due to the Internet and file sharing.

‘I would think 2005 is going to be largely be about copyright issues,’ Barrack says. ‘I think we’re still in transition right now, and I think that’s part of why we have come to these quick deals. Neither side really knows what the brave new world is going to be. But I think in 2005 we’re going to have a much clearer picture and it might be a much grimmer picture, quite frankly. I think we’re going to have some very tough bargaining in 2005.’

Barrack believes many of the solutions for copyright and online problems are out of the hands of both the producers and their union counterparts. Solutions for the biggest questions, he suggests, will come from Ottawa in the form of legislation, and for that to happen, a united front of producers, unions and guilds is an absolute necessity.

-www.cftpa.ca

-www.actra.ca

-www.wgc.ca

-www.iatse667.com

-www.ia669.com