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ACFC West Annual General Meeting – Sunday March 31, 2019 at 1:30pm

The next ACFC West Annual General Meeting will be held on March 31, 2019 at the Executive Hotel at 4201 Lougheed Highway in Burnaby.

Members attending the Annual General Meeting on Sunday March 31, 2019, have a chance to win one of TWO cash prizes of $500!

Additionally, Members who are travelling from out-of-town (such as Vancouver Island or the Okanagan) to attend the General Meeting may be eligible for a travel allowance to cover some travel costs. Reasonable travel expenses up to a total of $200 can be reimbursed by submitting ORIGINAL receipts to the ACFC West office.

Parking: Leave your license number at the hotel front desk for complimentary parking.

If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact Nicole in the ACFC West office at (604) 299-ACFC (2232) or email administrator@acfcwest.com.

MPI Hours of Service – Transportation

Applicability: These rules are applicable province-wide to a driver while operating a commercial motor vehicle solely for the transportation of property or persons to or from a theatrical film, video, commercial or television motion picture production site.

Maximum on-duty hours per day (BC): 14 hours

Maximum off-duty hours per day (BC): 10 hours each day. Up to 2 hours may be in blocks of at least 30 minutes

Log books: Drivers are required to record hours using a graph grid (paper or electronic) that is compliant with Schedule 2. A Carrier may choose to modify the graph grid to remove “Off-duty time when spent in a sleeper berth”. Carriers and drivers are not eligible to use the local time records exemption under MVAR 37.18.01

  • For the purposes of the proposed pilot, the carrier is assumed to be the production company or studio responsible for the production, regardless of what NSC certificate is displayed on a vehicle’s registration documents. The carrier has overall responsibility for monitoring and ensuring compliance with the Hours of Service rules for all drivers operating as part of the production.
  • During the pilot, carriers and drivers operating under the pilot will be exempt from MVAR 37.13.01 through 37.14.04 and 37.16.02 through 37.16.06 as these requirements are replaces by the MPI Hours of Service rules defined below (please see the attached PDF). All other requirements under MVAR Division 37, Part 3 are still in force.

PDF of Motion Picture Industry Hours of Service Info Sheet

Ontario Lawsuit Against Factual Television Producers

You may have seen reports that a $35-million class action lawsuit has recently been filed against Cineflex Media by a story editor following a groundswell of activism arising from the Canadian Media Guild (CMG) / CWA Canada campaign “Fairness in Factual TV,” which is aimed at securing fair working terms for those working unscripted projects. The claim alleges, among other things, that individuals working for Cineflex have been denied basic minimum standards under Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000, in the areas of minimum wage, overtime pay, vacation pay and holiday pay. The prospect of similar lawsuits against other factual television producers, and in other provinces, remains a possibility.

If you work, or have worked, for Cineflix, Insight Productions, Boat Rocker Media, or any other factual television producer, we encourage you to fill out this form to be kept informed about the efforts in this regard.

Please also forward this information to any non-ACFC crew you know who work in the factual television industry. We, as a union, must stand together with all workers in the entertainment industry.

A Letter from the Business Manager

SO LONG AND FAREWELL

At the end of March my contract is up; after almost 19 years I will be stepping aside.

I don’t know where 19 years stands on the rarity record for Business Managers / Business Agents for a Canadian film union but I imagine the uniqueness of the achievement is strengthened by the fact my leaving was neither the result of a coup or the collapse of the organization. In fact it is quite the contrary.

Your union local is in solid financial shape. You have a top notch benefit plan that, if managed properly, is well funded for years to come. Although the membership has increased several times over since the new millennium, with the accompanying services that requires to maintain, I take much pride in the fact that your operating budget remains essentially the same as it was in 1999, the year before I took charge. This frugalness has allowed your dues to decrease dramatically during my tenure.

Staff stability is another source of achievement that I take pride in. When I started as Business Manager the average staff member had only worked for the union local less than six months. Upon the decision of my leaving the average length of service to the union local by staff members in our office was 17.5 years. I sincerely appreciate the staff’s loyalty and hard work. In fact your Chief Steward, Daryl, is slated to be my replacement. That is another rarity, having a trained replacement ready to take over.

As for signed production, in the last two years the gross pay of crew we represented through our contracts were among the highest years in our history. This year is shaping up to continue that trend. In fact, our production level at the end of March will be at or near a high for this time of year.

I am very happy with the numerous achievements this union has accomplished during my tenure as Business Manager. This in no way could have been possible without the assistance of a lot of people who are too numerous to mention but the “thanks” would always start with the members.

A thank you to the members who ratified my contract 18 times. The most gratifying moments of my time at the union were when I thought I did something that helped a member, especially those who did not even know they were being helped. I always tried to recommend policy that helped those who might need it the most, even if they were not the most vocal.

A special thank you to those who served on Council. Their time spent helped shape our union local and I appreciated their volunteered time and support.

So there you have it. Many days of wondering if the glass is half full or half empty now turns into, hopefully, a glass with a little umbrella and a slice of pineapple on the side.

Greg Chambers
Business Manager

 

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