Unionized business players are calling for a boycott of six brands working with ad agencies embroiled in a nearly year-old labor dispute.
The Alliance of Canadian Film, Television and Radio Artists has turned to disgraceful brands including Rogers and Walmart as it seeks higher pay, protections and benefits amid contentious talks to renew the National Trade Agreement with the Institute of Canadian Agencies (ICA). ).
The list of target brands also includes Canadian Tire, McDonald’s, M&M Food Market and H&R Block, which work with agencies represented by the ICA, which disputes ACTRA’s version of the impasse.
ACTRA International President Eleanor Noble said members will not work without an agreement and are effectively locked out while the ICA turns to non-union artists.
“We gave them a courtesy, we sent them a letter to let them know ahead of time what we would do, and we never heard back,” Noble said of the boycott campaign.
Representatives of the named brands were contacted by Canadian Press but received no comment.
“Our members would rather build these brands than tell the entire labor movement across the country to boycott them.”
Meanwhile, Noble said the members are struggling to make ends meet.
“We have meetings and we are close to our members and we see how stressed they are,” Noble said.
“They are literally crying, trying to make ends meet and people are trying to pay their bills, pay their mortgages and put food on the table.”
However, ICA President and CEO Scott Knox said his group has not stopped ACTRA from working, saying it is the union that has told members to refuse jobs with ICA agencies.
He said that doesn’t leave ICA members, which include advertising, marketing, media and public relations agencies, with no choice but to turn to non-union artists.
“We are still trying to sign active artists, albeit through third party payroll companies (BC Productions, Extreme Reach and The TEAM Companies) like everyone else does, and ACTRA keeps saying no to a list of agencies on their website and is actively telling artists and cast not to work with them,” Knox said.
“For all intents and purposes, this is an ACTRA strike. Not a lockout. Because we haven’t banned anything. We keep trying and they keep saying no.”
Knox blamed the disagreement on ACTRA, stating that the union allowed agencies that did not sign the agreement better and more flexible access to union and non-union talent.
ACTRA has also launched a campaign against the Government of Canada to end a contractual agreement with Cossette Media, one of the advertising agencies represented by ICA.
“Members are outraged that the federal government, which continues to claim it wants to protect temporary workers and is crafting anti-shard legislation, is actually using Cossette as its advertising agency,” Noble said.
“We as a union expect our government to practice what it preaches.”
In a statement, the ICA said Cossette’s work for the federal government is produced exclusively in Quebec with members of ACTRA and UDA (Union des artistes).
Monica Granados, press secretary for the Canadian Treasury Board, which oversees federal government spending, said by email that her office met with ACTRA and declined to comment other than to say the government is dedicated to ” a fair and balanced approach to manpower”. relations.”
ACTRA represents more than 28,000 members across the country, 9,000 of them commercial players.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on March 29, 2023.