EXCLUSIVE: After nearly three months, the Writers Guild of Canada returned to the negotiating table with Canadian producers this week – this time with an unprecedented level of power in its hands.
Last week, Canadian union officials approved the first strike authorization vote in the union’s history, following nearly six months of talks to renew the existing Independent Production Agreement with the Canadian Media Producers Association.
“We have never been in a situation where we even had to call for a strike,” a Canadian writer told Deadline. “This is an American phenomenon. We are used to adversity, but the idea that we had to do this is quite disturbing to most members.”
While their U.S. counterparts are still recovering from last year’s work stoppages, Canadian writers and producers now face a difficult turning point in their own contract negotiations.
Fears of a possible strike have been growing since talks collapsed late last year as producers and writers struggled to find a compromise on key financial and labor issues. Both sides hope there is still a path to an agreement, but neither party is entirely sure how to deal with the threat of looming pickets.
“We are frustrated by the lack of progress at the table,” said a Canadian writer and showrunner, adding that they hope the 96.5% vote for the strike authorization “shows the determination to remain steadfast in our commitment to a fair deal stay.” for screenwriters.”
If the WGC declares a strike, these pickets will not appear immediately. Instead, the union would have to inform the Canadian federal government and industrial action would begin 15 days later.
Approved with the highest turnout in WGC history by 70.2% of eligible voters, the strike authorization certainly rocked an already uncertain Canadian manufacturing industry. The solution still seems relatively unclear, but both writers and producers are still keeping their fingers crossed that a deal can be made.
“I think that CMPA must have looked at the results and realized that the authors were serious and acted in concert,” the author said. “I’m not sure they realized that beforehand. This shows them that we are prepared to take action if they do not come back to the table and negotiate in good faith.”
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The previous IPA ended on December 31, 2023, but has since been extended in the hope of a new deal. In December, the parties agreed to an arbitrator and have been negotiating through mediation since then to “lower the emotional temperature,” another source tells Deadline.
Deadline understands that before this week, the WGC and CMPA had not returned to the table since the authors submitted their last counterproposal in February.
“People are hoping there won’t be a strike. They understand that strikes are very dramatic and can harm people. [including] Craft businesses and related industries that face enormous hardships. “Writers in particular are very sensitive to this and did not agree to the strike lightly,” a U.S.-based producer working on Canadian co-productions told Deadline.
Some of the issues facing Canadian writers are similar to those faced by their U.S. counterparts last year, including minimum staffing requirements for writers’ rooms and salary increases to accommodate shorter contracts.
Others are completely different. For example, residuals don’t play a role in these conversations because, unlike the AMPTP, the CMPA doesn’t represent Canada’s networks and streamers. Instead, the CMPA negotiates on behalf of indie producers, who drive much of the country’s local content creation.
Authors in Canada believe animation is particularly vulnerable right now because it is considered “easy to attack” with changing technologies, including AI. In addition to AI protections aimed at preserving the medium, the WGC also requires that animation writers earn the same screenplay fees as live-action writers.
Although they have not yet experienced a strike of their own, Canadian production workers experienced some “chilling effects” from last year’s industrial action in Hollywood, a source said.
As Canada has become a hotspot for U.S. productions from Vancouver to Toronto, Montreal and elsewhere, the so-called Hot Labor Summer, which saw nearly 175,000 WGA and SAG-AFTRA members take to the streets across the country, led to outbursts Productions north of the border that have come under control should also be shut down.
Last year, the WGC — which represents 2,500 professional English-language Canadian screenwriters — supported U.S. writers during the Writers Guild of America’s historic 148-day strike and urged its own members not to accept work that fell under the WGA’s jurisdiction.
To clarify its specific concerns, the Canadian union had also drawn attention to the struggles of its own screenwriters, particularly with regard to compensation. In a July report, the guild said the total income of its members with Canadian citizenship has declined nearly 22%, adjusted for inflation, over the past five years.
Artificial intelligence, on the other hand, is somewhat new territory for Canadian writers and producers. According to Deadline, neither party entered negotiations in October with major concerns about the technology. But concerns have grown on both sides in recent months as the technology has rapidly spread across all areas of the global media industry.
“Everyone is afraid of AI to some extent,” the US-based producer told Deadline. “Everyone wants to preserve their way of making a living in the face of extreme change. All of these things are happening at the same time, which means people are fearful about how they will make a living in the future. Fear is a very human emotion.”
Hollywood is abuzz with discussions about AI after it became a hot topic during the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. It has been a key sticking point in both unions’ negotiations with U.S.-based studios, and it continues to rear its head in ongoing talks between those studios and below-the-line workers, which began negotiations in March.
However, while US unions were focused on AI, a writer’s source told Deadline that these discussions were “off the register for Canadian writers” at the time.
“We don’t want our work product to be used by producers to train AI, and we want rules and regulations in place to limit AI use and let writers continue to work in early development,” another source said Knowledge of negotiating deadlines. He explains that both parties have so far failed to find a “common basis” for this demand.
In this context, CMPA’s present offer is “substantially consistent with the WGA deal,” we understand. However, this US agreement does not include a total ban on the use of author’s materials to train AI systems.
Since last week’s strike authorization vote, Deadline has learned that negotiations have resumed but are “progressing slowly.” It is unclear what progress, if any, has been made on the remaining issues.
The US-based producer added: “Stopping production is not good for anyone. You have production fears that you’ve been working on for years. If it explodes due to a strike, you may not be able to reassemble it. Producers are also worried that their livelihoods will be at risk.”
Since the WGC’s current contract has already expired, there is no deadline for negotiations to be completed before a strike occurs. Instead, it’s up to the authors to decide when and whether to leave the table.