Thursday, March 27, 2014

New rules for CTA ratification votes

During the 2012 ratification vote for the CTA, there was considerable member discussion on the eligibility criteria for voting. A bit of background: the voting pool for all agreements has historically been defined as members who have been engaged under the expiring agreement (typically the previous three years).

As mentioned at the time, the rationale for this approach was threefold: equal voting rights across all negotiated agreements; a ratification processes within our financial resources; and a decision made by members with the most current knowledge and whose input shaped the negotiations. Still, members made it clear that they thought it was time for a change, and Council has recently completed bylaw amendments to bring that about.

Going forward, the CTA will have a separate set of ratification rules. All members in good standing who have worked under any theatre agreement providing for minimum scale fees*, during the six year period ending with the expiry date of the agreement, will now be automatically eligible to vote. This change will increase the voting pool considerably. 


In addition, any member in good standing who is not automatically included in that six-year pool may also register to vote in the ratification. Registration will begin six months before the expiry date of the agreement, and extend until the anticipated date for close of negotiations. Advance notice regarding registration will be provided in plenty of time for members to get on the list.

Note that these changes do not affect the voting pool for the Stratford Addendum, nor any other agreement.

Council chose this dual approach as a way to balance greater automatic access with the increased costs of having a larger voting pool. We hope, through these changes, to provide voting access to our largest agreement to all members in good standing who may wish to vote. This change will be first applied to the ratification vote expected in 2015.


* This includes all current theatre agreements, except for the Festival Waiver and the Artists' Collective Policy.

2 comments:

  1. I think that's a great step forward. Thanks, Allan.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Stefano GiulianettiApril 6, 2014 at 7:34 PM

    Sounds very fair. Well done Council!

    ReplyDelete

Please include your name. Comments may be reviewed before appearing, and may be withheld or removed at the administrator's discretion.