British Columbia’s massive film industry is facing the prospect of a strike as members of a labour organization representing 1,700 workers, employed on some of the most beloved productions on screen, started a strike vote Wednesday largely due to wage issues.
It’s the first ever such vote for the Directors Guild of Canada’s B.C. district council, and comes more than a year after the last agreement expired, said executive director Kendrie Upton.
“Calling for a strike mandate is the last place that any of us on the DGC negotiating team wanted to be,” Upton said. “This is not taken lightly.”
The guild’s members work throughout the province’s industry and, according to its current production list, are on the sets of a number of popular productions. “The Flash,” “Riverdale” and “Snowpiercer” all include workers represented by the guild.
An October 2020 report from the Vancouver Economic Commission said the industry was responsible for about $12.5 billion in salaries for workers in the province between 2012 and 2020. The commission said Vancouver is the third-largest film centre in North America after Los Angeles and New York.
But Upton said it’s too early to say if a strike mandate could result in directors yelling “cut” for an extended period of time on the sets of productions filmed in the province.
If members support the mandate, the guild has three months to strike; if they have not taken labour action after those three months, another vote must be held if any action is planned.
The employers, the Los Angelesbased Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Canadian Media Producers Association, did not comment on the strike. The guild said talks broke off Monday, prompting the strike mandate vote.
At the heart of the dispute is wage conditions for the guild’s lowestpaid members, such as production assistants, trainees and other entry-level positions, Upton said.
Starting in June, B.C.’s minimum wage will be $15.65 an hour and Upton said the increase means those who already have experience in the industry will then be back to making minimum wage.
Voting on the strike mandate closes Thursday.