Labour disputes threaten to disrupt recovery in Montreal film industry
JONATHAN MONTPETIT
Sunday, July 16, 2006


MONTREAL (CP) - A bitter labour dispute between two competing unions is threatening to derail attempts to revive Montreal's stagnant film production industry.

Talks between the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and the Alliance quebecoise des techniciens de l'image et du son (AQTIS) broke down yet again last week, as the two unions continue to squabble over who has the right to represent the province's film technicians.

The dispute has left some wondering if labour unrest is hurting Montreal's ability to attract big budget productions - valuable injections to the city's economy.

"It can't be good," AQTIS president Celine Daignault said, referring to the inability to reach a deal.

IATSE, one of the leading film technician unions in the U.S., has been trying to carve a foothold in Quebec over the past year, and has succeeded in signing up around 800 members.

Though AQTIS resents what it sees as encroachment, it says it is willing to let IATSE represent technicians on bigger productions.

But that offer was rejected, and now both sides will air their grievances before Quebec's labour relations board.

Calls to IATSE representatives last week were not returned.

Following a banner year in 2003, when $382 million was spent making movies in Montreal, film sets have been few and far between.

According to industry publication Playback magazine, Montreal hasn't hosted a major U.S. production in more than a year, highlighting a three-year decline in the business.

"We all know that labour unrest is not good for business," Daignault said.

Though a strong Canadian dollar and intense competition share part of the blame for the slowdown, the dispute between the two technicians' unions is being fingered for the recent loss of at least one coveted production.

During the spring, producers of the science-fiction film Jumper scrapped plans to shoot in Montreal and set up shop in Toronto instead.

The movie, starring Samuel L. Jackson, has a budget of US $100 million.

The move down the 401 prompted the Quebec government to appoint Liberal Senator and former cabinet minister Francis Fox as a facilitator in the dispute before any other productions pack up.

But with IATSE turning down their rival's recent offer, chances of a deal being reached appear increasingly remote.

Still, Fox played down fears the dispute is hurting the industry.

"Impasse does not equal crisis at the moment," he said in a telephone interview. "It certainly doesn't equal work stoppages on the sets that are already here."

The bickering between the technicians' unions comes on top of strife surrounding the Quebec association of film and television producers, which is seeking the right to represent all producers working in the province, a move that has upset their U.S. counterparts.

"We have to put order in our affairs here in terms of labour relations," said Montreal's film commissioner Daniel Bissonnette.

Both Bissonnette and Fox worry the current disputes will overshadow progress being made in getting the industry back on its feet, such as the recent creation of a provincewide film commission that will promote Quebec as a location abroad.

"There are certain number of issues that need to be solved, but it won't prevent us from doing business," Bissonnette said.

Indeed, while far from the boom years, Montreal has managed to attract a number of high-profile productions of late.

Paramount Pictures will begin shooting an adaptation of the children's book The Spiderwick Chronicles in the fall, and its $110-million budget will be a welcome windfall to the Montreal movie business.

In addition, the action pic Journey to the Center of the Earth - a riff on the Jules Verne classic - has already started shooting in the city, though its budget is less than half of Spiderwick.

Montrealers might also catch glimpses of Heath Ledger, Richard Gere and Julianne Moore as the cast of the $30 million Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There gathers here later this summer.

© The Canadian Press, 2006