The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) is ready for a strike.
On Thursday night, the WGC revealed that 96.5 percent of eligible members have voted to authorize a strike should it fail to reach a new deal with the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA). In a statement, WGC executive director Victoria Shen said this is the first strike authorization in the guild’s 33-year history.
“We believe a labour dispute would be extremely damaging to the domestic Canadian film and television production sector and we remain focused on successfully concluding negotiations,” said Sean Porter, the CMPA’s vice president, in a separate statement.
The Writers Guild of Canada represents 2,500 professional English-language screenwriters across Canada. The CMPA, meanwhile, represents 400 producers around the country.
For six months now, the WGC and CMPA have been negotiating a new agreement, with the former group pushing for writers to get improved compensation, protections against artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and minimum staffing in writers’ rooms on domestic TV series. For AI, in particular, there is a growing concern that companies will such ever-evolving technologies to replace writing and acting jobs that would have otherwise gone to humans.
Notably, these echo concerns from both the actors and writers guilds in America last year, which lasted for roughly four and five months, respectively. Of course, the WGC’s authorization vote doesn’t mean a strike will actually happen in Canada, merely that the writers have the option should negotiations fall through.
It remains to be seen when talks between the WGC and CMPA will resume.
Image credit: Writers Guild of Canada
Source: Writers Guild of Canada Via: Canadian Press
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