Status of the Artist Act-Pressure tactics

What is a pressure tactic?

• In the Status of the Artist Act, pressure tactics can be used by both artists and artists’ associations, as well as by producers and producers’ associations, to pressure the other party to come to an agreement on the terms and conditions of a scale agreement.  
• Pressure tactics by an artist or an artists’ association include a stoppage of work for a producer or a producers’ association.
• Pressure tactics by a producer or a producers’ association include the closing of a workplace, a suspension of productions and the refusal to continue to engage artists in the artists’ association.

Are pressure tactics legal?

• Just like strikes and lockouts, pressure tactics are only legal when used during certain periods of time which are identified in the Status of the Artist Act.  
• Pressure tactics can legally be used:
  • in the period starting 30 days after a scale agreement ends and ending when a new one is entered into; or
  • when there is no scale agreement, in the period starting six months after certification of the artists’ association and ending when a scale agreement is entered into. 

What is the recourse when illegal pressure tactics are suspected of being used?

• If a producer or a producers’ association thinks that an artists’ association is applying pressure tactics or is about to do so outside of the legal periods, the producer or producers’ association can ask the Board to declare that the pressure tactics are illegal. The Board can order the artists’ association to stop the pressure tactics and order the artists to resume work.
• If an artists’ association thinks that a producer or a producers’ association is applying pressure tactics or is about to do so outside of the legal periods, the artists’ association can ask the Board to declare that the pressure tactics are illegal.  The Board can order the producer or the producers’ association to allow the artists to continue to work.