The North American group of the International Federation of Actors (FIA-NA) met in Toronto on May 14 and 15, 2005 – gathering delegates from the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA, Canada), American Actors’ Equity Association (AEA, USA), American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA, USA), Canadian Actors’ Equity Association (CAEA, Canada), Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG, USA) and Union des Artistes (UDA, Canada). Also represented were FIA and the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA, Australia). Discussion essentially focused on safety in the workplace, non-union productions, communication and governance, cultural diversity and the global protection of performers. Based on SAG’s “Global Rule One”, other unions decided to enforce the use of collective agreements for their members employed abroad, under certain conditions. These measures are necessary to clamp down on the non-union employment of performers in relocated productions, which has become a challenge for many of our members.
Much attention was given to two industrial conflicts in Canada and Mexico. The Blue Man Group, an extremely successful production company with shows in the USA and Germany, is planning to open soon another franchised production in London (UK) and in Toronto, Canada. Despite its huge success – and millions of income – the Blue Man Group wishes to open in Canada non-union. FIA and many of its affiliates have backed without reserve CAEA’s decision to BOYCOTT the show until a satisfactory agreement is reached that will grant performers, musicians and technicians decent and proper working conditions. All FIA-NA unions reaffirmed their intention to instruct their members not to accept work for this show in Toronto until the dispute is solved.
The industrial action undertaken by the Asociación Nacional de Actores (ANDA, Mexico) in support of dubbing artists in the country was also discussed at great length. Despite the outrageously low pay that professional dubbing artists get today in Mexico (some being paid as low as 6 US dollars for each episode), Grabaciones y Doblajes Internacionales refuses to renew an agreement with ANDA, hiring amateurs instead – that they can pay even less. FIA and its North American group have also called for worldwide support to this strike. Such behaviours are unacceptable, deeply offensive for the professionals that we represent and they do not benefit the industry. They certainly offer a further argument in favour of strong and effective unions as well as international solidarity.
