Degrassi: The Next Generation executive producer Stephen Stohn is, like many producers, looking to a higher power to bring an end to the ACTRA strike.

Not the big gal upstairs, but the Ontario Superior Court, which is expected to decide whether the unprecedented walkout – in which there are no pickets and no one is off the job – is legal.

‘I’m very glad that it’s before the courts now, and I hope that a decision comes soon,’ says Stohn, ‘because I suspect that until then there won’t be any movement in negotiations.

‘What upsets me more than anything is that from the beginning, these negotiations seem to have been carried on in public,’ he adds. ‘And whenever that happens it makes it 100 times harder to get a deal. If both sides can stop issuing public statements and get to talks behind closed doors we’ll start seeing more progress.’

The actors union took action against producers in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba on Jan. 8 after the two sides failed to negotiate a new Independent Production Agreement. On Jan. 10, Quebec joined the list, and ACTRA chief negotiator Stephen Waddell says his union is working to do the same in every other province by mid-February. (British Columbia, however, is covered under a different collective agreement.)

They’re calling it a ‘business as usual’ strike. Under its terms, any producer can sign a continuation letter with the union exempting them from the walkout – in exchange for a pay raise of 5% plus a 2% increase in retirement and insurance benefits. The list of productions that has signed is almost 100 titles long. ACTRA claims that everyone currently in production in the first four provinces has signed the continuation letters.

‘This is unique in the history of labor relations, where a union goes on strike and all its members continue to work, and not only that, but they get a 5% increase in wages and 2% in retirement and benefits,’ says Waddell. ‘Clearly in the signing of these letters producers are abandoning their trade association… They’ve walked away from the CFTPA and its position in these negotiations.’

Stohn disagrees. He believes that for any producer with hundreds of jobs on the line and delivery commitments to broadcasters it would be ‘pretty tempting’ to sign such a letter, ‘and it wouldn’t reflect on their feelings in the overall negotiations.’

Stohn has not faced that decision himself, because his Epitome Pictures accelerated its Degrassi schedule to wrap before the IPA expired at the end of last year. Pending renewals, Degrassi goes back into production in mid-April.

CFTPA went to the Ontario Superior Court soon after the strike was called and filed lawsuits saying that both the strike and the continuation letters are illegal. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 23 and 24.

‘The key message here is these continuation letters,’ says John Barrack, chief negotiator for the CFTPA. ‘You can’t have them even if you are in a legal strike position, and moreover, they’re not in a legal strike position.’

What is certain is that labor instability made 2006 one of the worst production years on record for Toronto, and Toronto Film Studios president Ken Ferguson fears that unless the sides settle, and soon, this year could be even worse.

‘The real issue is around work that has not started,’ he says. ‘There may be little or no effect now, but we’re quickly going to run out of work that’s in the hopper.’

Waddell argues that the strike will not affect production going forward, since the interim letters are available to anyone who wants to sign them, but Ferguson disagrees.

‘I can’t see why any major feature film or television series would agree to a 7% increase just so they can film here,’ he says. ‘I think they would simply take the project somewhere else.’

Jean Bonini, executive VP of labor relations for Sony Pictures Entertainment, says Sony will not sign. ‘We are not going to be signing continuation letters in order to produce in the areas of Canada where this collective bargaining applies.’

Sony had been eyeing Montreal for the Pink Panther sequel, but Bonini confirms that labor instability has taken Canada, outside of B.C., off the table. Disney, which had penciled in Toronto for the National Treasure sequel, is now giving it a miss.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, representing the U.S. studios, issued a statement Jan. 12 saying the strike could ‘have a devastating and long term impact’ on production, noting, ‘Production companies will have to consider alternate locations the longer the strike goes on.’

The most recent wage proposals from the two sides were very close in their terms. Producers represented in English Canada by the CFTPA and in Quebec by the APFTQ offered a 3% raise the first year, 3% the second and 3% the third, while ACTRA asked for a 3% wage increase plus a 1% retirement benefits increase the first year, plus a 3% wage increase the second year and again the third.

The new media battleground is a different story. The issue has devolved into a propaganda war in which ACTRA claims producers want those rights ‘for free, virtually,’ according to Waddell. Producers say that’s a misrepresentation, and that they are offering to pay actors ‘three times’ – the daily fee when new media is produced, a royalty fee of 3.6% to 6.6% of revenue when it is used or distributed, and again if it is converted to another platform.

Observers believe that both ACTRA and the producers are looking over their shoulders on the new media issue, careful not to set an unfortunate precedent for upcoming writers, directors and actor negotiations south of the border.

‘The stakes are so much higher in the States. The major studios are not going to want to see too attractive a settlement in Canada, nor does ACTRA want to undersell themselves,’ says Ferguson. ‘Everyone agrees that new media is a very difficult issue, and ACTRA is in the unhappy position of being the first one to deal with it.’

How long could this last? ‘I’ve got a feeling that shortly before we go to court someone will recognize that there’s a need for sanity,’ says Barrack, ‘but for now it probably makes sense for everyone to go to their corners and get their rest. This is affecting a lot of people.’

ACTRA brass have said they’re willing to wait until producers who have stockpiled ‘get hungry,’ suggesting that, if the strike is not halted by the courts, it could be a long one.

www.actra.ca

www.cftpa.ca

www.apftq.qc.ca