The Union des artistes (UDA) announced Sunday afternoon that its members had voted in favour of a pressure tactic mandate in the context of negotiations that have been ongoing for a year and a half with the Association québécoise de production média (AQPM), which governs the practices of members of the artists’ union.
The pressure tactics approved by the union members can range from the simple presence of UDA labour relations officers on the sets to an unlimited general strike. The president of the UDA, actress Tania Kontoyanni, however, points out that, despite this vote, negotiations are not closed.
“After a year and a half of negotiations, the committee feels that it is time to start putting pressure on if we want this to end at some point,” explains the union president.
The collective agreement between UDA members and the AQPM expired on 1er February 2023.
The union negotiates in particular the resale rights of its members, that is to say the remuneration they receive when their works are resold or rebroadcast. But it also has in its sights the digital market, the supervision of which remains deficient to this day.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Mr.me Kontoyanni points out that the web has been considered until now as “a secondary market”, while, she maintains, “all our works end up being directed 95% towards the web. So we can no longer act as if it were an inferior market to traditional television.”
Still in the digital sphere, the UDA is calling for a framework for the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Our members are very afraid of AI, says the president. Being replaced [par l’IA]this is not, at this moment, a very very distant science fiction scenario. It is waiting for us.
Tania Kontoyanni, president of the UDA
The actress emphasizes the fact that artists are on the front lines of the consequences of the use of artificial intelligence without supervision. Consequences of both legal and ethical nature. She adds to this a certain irony of fate, which means that “for all these years, we have been feeding the beast that will devour us.”
The mandate was approved by 99%, the union claims. Although only 300 to 400 of the UDA’s 13,000 members voted, Mr.me Kontoyanni maintains that this is an “unequivocal” vote, as participation in union elections does not usually reach such figures.
The UDA is currently waiting for a response from the AQPM to its latest proposal, which should be submitted in early October. Tania Kontoyanni hopes that thanks to this mandate of pressure tactics, the upcoming response “will be better than what has been submitted so far.”
On Monday morning, the UDA negotiating committee is due to meet to decide on the first applications of this mandate for pressure tactics, which could begin to be exercised as early as Friday.
The Quebec Media Production Association did not immediately respond to our request for comment.