Labor dispute resolved at Fantasia Film Festival.
Employees voted unanimously on Tuesday in favour of the agreement in principle reached on July 12, the Syndicat des employé-es de l’événementiel-CSN, Fantasia section, announced on Wednesday.
They thus obtained their first collective agreement.
In June, members voted unanimously for a five-day strike to be carried out at an appropriate time. They walked out last Thursday in hopes of moving talks forward at the bargaining table.
“The perseverance and exemplary mobilization of the employees will have borne fruit and forced the employer to listen to the demands of the workers,” the union rejoices in a press release.
“We had to stand up until the very end to succeed in obtaining significant gains to curb our precariousness. With this first collective agreement, we are laying the foundations to improve our working conditions,” says Justine Smith, who is part of the negotiating committee of the Syndicat des employé-es de l’événementiel – CSN, Fantasia section.
Among the gains, the union highlights “the recognition of employee status and associated benefits, the determination of minimum wage thresholds for each job category, as well as wage increases for 2024 ranging between 3% and 22%.”
Employees also gained nine paid statutory holidays, annual vacation of up to five weeks after seven years of continuous service, and the addition of a minimum of two paid sick days and a maximum of ten paid days, regardless of the number of hours worked during the month.
The 28e edition of Fantasia will begin on Thursday.
Two other festival unions represented by the CSN, that of the Fondation Québec Cinéma and that of the Festival du nouveau cinéma (FNC), have also recently concluded their first collective agreements.
“The signal is clear: event workers are organizing and they want to improve their situation,” says Annick Charette, president of the Fédération nationale des communications et de la culture – CSN.
Note to readers: This is a corrected version. In a previous version, The Canadian Press wrote that the 27e edition of Fantasia will begin on Thursday. In fact, it is the 28the editing.