With the busy summer shooting season about to start, behind-the-camera workers in British Columbia have signed new union contracts with Canuck and U.S. producers – while separate talks between producers and actors remain stuck in neutral.

The B.C. Council of Film Unions, representing major technician unions in the province, ratified a new B.C. Master Production Agreement on March 16 with the CFTPA’s B.C. branch and representatives of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, representing U.S. studios.

The technicians came away with a 10% wage increase over three years, to April 2009. The new deal also allows for tiered wage structures for low-budget film and TV shoots in the province, including Canadian projects.

Tom Milne, secretary treasurer of Teamsters Local 155 in Vancouver, says that, although not popular with technicians, varied wages for low-budget projects were necessary for his members to remain competitive with rival unions.

The technicians and the producers still have to resolve the contentious issue of seniority through arbitration. An earlier report by B.C. Supreme Court Justice David Tysoe recommended replacing the traditional seniority dispatch system for Teamsters Local 155 and IATSE Local 891 with a name request system – enabling producers to choose workers from a list of available union members.

The impasse on seniority may not be settled any time soon, according to Milne. ‘We would be willing to sit on weekends to move the issue along, but at the present time, there’s no dates,’ he says.

The new technician deal comes as separate negotiations involving the CFTPA’s B.C. Producers’ Branch, the major U.S. studios, and the Union of British Columbia Performers remain stalled.

Talks resumed on March 21 and 22 in Vancouver, but both sides appeared far apart on key issues, including salary increases, wage and benefit rollbacks on big-budget studio pictures, and workplace conditions for minors.

The delays in B.C. have pushed back talks in Toronto on a new Independent Production Agreement for the CFTPA, its Quebec counterpart the APFTQ and ACTRA.

John Barrack, CFTPA national executive VP and chief negotiator, says talks on a new IPA – set to start from April 18-21 in Toronto – will not go ahead as planned if the producer-UBCP talks in Vancouver do not produce an agreement by April 12.

ACTRA and UBCP would not comment on the talks.

The last two IPA negotiations in 2000 and 2003 were concluded relatively quickly.