ACTRA Needs Our Support

Dear Member,

When workers go on strike — as SAG-AFTRA members did in 2023 over the TV/Theatrical Contracts and as they are with the ongoing video game strike — it’s collective action that makes the difference.

This is a critical time for labor, and our Canadian sibling union needs our support. The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) is in a long-standing dispute with the Institute of Canadian Agencies (ICA), one of two trade associations with which commercial performers in the union bargain. The ICA essentially wants to be able to opt-out of ACTRA’s National Commercials Agreement at will and shoot non-union whenever they feel like it.

After ACTRA members authorized a strike in March 2022 over this dispute, the ICA walked away from the bargaining table shortly after and declared a lockout, refusing to employ ACTRA members under the terms of ACTRA’s National Commercials Agreement.

That’s where you come in.

SAG-AFTRA is not on strike under our Commercials Contracts, and an employer signed to SAG-AFTRA’s Commercials Contract can hire our union members in the United States for work in Canada. However, when SAG-AFTRA performers work on commercials that are shot in Canada, but those commercials are not signed to ACTRA for Canadian talent, it’s easier for the ICA to continue to hold out and refuse to reach an agreement with ACTRA. The ICA lockout has already been catastrophic for ACTRA commercial performers, and sets a dangerous precedent that could weaken labor rights for performers around the world, including here at home.

So, the next time you or your reps see an audition notice for a commercial that is shooting in Canada, in addition to making sure that you would be working for a SAG-AFTRA-signatory employer, please check whether the spot is signed to ACTRA’s National Commercials Agreement for Canadian talent. If the job is not covered by an ACTRA contract for Canadian talent, you have an important decision to make: Do you proceed anyway and make our Canadian peers’ fight even harder, or do you choose solidarity? The choice is yours. We urge you to choose solidarity.

In unity,

SAG-AFTRA