Labor pains

Union troubles of one sort or another are being felt in Canada’s major production centers. However, in b.c. labor unrest has reached the point where it could be potentially damaging to the future development of the industry. And the industry will be taking a long hard look at growing labor inflexibility at a meeting of the Canadian Film and Television Production Association meeting in Vancouver this month.

When a production center gets too busy people become smug. With 87 shows shot in b.c. already this year, some workers believe it’s their birthright to be able to pick and choose the projects they want to work on. A myopic vision that has historically backfired by eliminating the demand.

Five years ago New York labor organized themselves out of the production loop, and only now are they starting to bounce back. Toronto went through it six years ago, and had to work to get its service production volume back again. Montreal lost it and is still struggling to make a comeback.

Call it puberty, or maybe just raging hormones, the West Coast industry has not quite matured.

Many union workers do not fully appreciate that tv is not studio feature work. tv production is cut very close to the bone; licence fees have not kept pace with the nets’ demands for increasingly sophisticated production values.

The B.C. Film Commission has been pushing for the unions to expand their studio zone to Fort Langley, a mere 45-minute drive from downtown Vancouver, to make it more practical for producers to shoot further out of town to take some of the pressure off overused Vancouver locations. Union membership voted it down.

How is all this affecting production? Mark DesRochers, production and location services manager of the B.C. Film Commission, says: ‘On surface it doesn’t look like it is, but maybe union members don’t realize that production incentive schemes such as those offered by Vancouver’s Beacon Group and Monarch Entertainment are having a large impact on production coming to Vancouver. If you were to consider a level playing field with other locations, I wonder just how competitive we could be.’

The film commission gives producers an honest assessment of the problems. ‘We don’t want to lead them down a tunnel where the light at the end is really a frigging train,’ says DesRochers.

Hollywood producers are looking at alternative technicians unions such as acfc, and not just from the standpoint of cheap labor. Says one producer: ‘What they lack in experience they more than make up in enthusiasm’

But from the union perspective, the overall cost of filming in b.c. has also increased dramatically.

‘This isn’t Podunk. You’re not going to a town where you can get a nice hotel room for 45 bucks, it’s a very popular place on the planet. So it’s only natural that escalating costs in the industry go along with the escalating cost of living here,’ says a union spokesperson.

Union members say they find it very irritating when they continue to see above-the-line excesses, and wonder why they have to pick up the tab for leaner, meaner production. ‘Why do we have to pick up the costs to make it work in Vancouver? Make producers trim the fat as well,’ says the union source.

Meanwhile, Canada’s growing production communities outside the major centers, replete with new facilities and broadening credit lists among the craftspeople, are busily attracting work both from outside and elsewhere within the country. The cycle continuesÉ