Directors Guild of Canada BC members overwhelmingly vote to authorize strike against film and TV production

Updated DGA statement: Members of the British Columbia Directors Guild of Canada voted overwhelmingly in favor of the province’s strike on film and television productions. The vote for the first strike in the history of the union was supported by 92.2%, with 86.2% of the voters who voted.

“We thank our members for their solidarity with this great mandate,” said Alan Harmon, president of the DGC BC District Council. “Your strength and determination show that respect, justice and safety at work are out of the question. “We are striving to achieve and maintain the fundamental rights of all those who work under our collective agreement.”

The largest city in BC is Vancouver’s busy manufacturing hub.

Before the vote, the union told its members that a “yes” vote “doesn’t mean we have to resign the next day.” Instead, it gives your negotiating team a strong mandate to negotiate a fair deal and gives us the right to take action if the negotiating producers reject your legitimate concerns.

“Our goal is to reach a fair deal,” said Kendry Upton, CEO of DGC BC. “We all care about this sector, so let’s shake hands, go back to the table and find a solution. “This is the best way to ensure long-term job stability.”

Meanwhile, the American Directors Guild expressed its support for the DGC BC, saying today in a statement that it “stands in solidarity with our DGC brothers and sisters in British Columbia. The issues of respect, fair pay and safety they fight for are important to all workers. We urge the AMPTP and the CMPA to return to the negotiating table and reach a fair agreement to resolve these issues “.

Guild’s current contract expired on March 31, 2021, but has been extended for over a year in hopes of reaching a fair deal. Workers and management are expected to return to the negotiating table in the coming days, despite the union having already declared a “stalemate” after the outbreak of mediation. In the United States, declaring a “dead end” to a settlement often precedes a strike, especially because mediation failed, as it did before the approval vote.

Directors Guild of Canada BC Urges Members to Vote OK for First Strike After AMPTP Agreement “Deadlock”

The strike, if so, will be the first in the history of the DGC BC. According to Creative BC of the British Columbia Film Commission, more than 30 projects are currently shot there, including films such as parallel forest Y Pink; TV series The Flash, The Good Doctor, The Charming, The Snowman, Riverdale, Superman and Lois, A Million Little Things Y little sister; and miniseries The Fall of the House of Asher Y Shoguni.

However, the strike will not prevent it from being filmed elsewhere in Canada. In Toronto, which is also the filming location, the directors and their crew are represented by another DGC district council, which has its own separate contracts and does not threaten to terminate them.

DGC BC claims to “fight for the respect, justice and safety of people working under its collective bargaining agreement, especially for the lowest paid and most vulnerable, which includes diverse and under-represented groups in the sector”. It also says it is fighting “clawbacks”: setbacks on existing contract terms. Other key issues, it is said, are the difference between the minimum wage; Payment times for Covid test and increase in salary retroactivity. “We cannot recommend an agreement that involves meaningful concessions and does not address the fundamental objectives of DGC BC: respect, fairness and security,” Gildia said before the vote.

The 1,700-member guild represents not only directors, but also second division directors, unit and production managers, and those employed in the assistant director’s departments and locations, as well as entry-level production assistants. Acceptable terms for entry level participants were an important issue in the negotiations.

AMPTP and the Canadian Association of Media Producers, with whom the Guild has been negotiating for more than a year, warned Wednesday that job instability in the region could force producers to think twice before shooting there. The DGC BC strike clearance vote sends a message of uncertainty about employment in the province and seriously threatens British Columbia’s reputation as an attractive place to make films. Given the potential for job instability in British Columbia, companies represented by AMPTP and CMPA may be forced to reevaluate their plans to launch new products in the province.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, representing major American companies, and CMPA, the Independent Producers Trade Association, said they had “meticulously reviewed the industry’s top priorities and offered a comprehensive proposal to meet these requirements.” . A large salary increase for location managers, the creation of new, higher-paid core experience coordinators, and greater benefits for members working on certain high-budget SVOD products, including scrap. Payments to directors. “This generous offer does not contain ‘refunds’ or ‘benefit cuts’.”