History
In 1943 The Association of Canadian Radio Artists was formed in order to establish better working conditions and wages for radio performers. Writer’s joined in on this organization, and over the next decade the organization transformed into the Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists.
By 1984 the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) was formed to better include the other areas of the broadcasting industry. From this organization, other Guilds formed and matured. Most notably the ACTRA Performer’s Guild, Writer’s Guild of Canada, and ACTRA Media Guild. In 1993 The Writer’s Guild of Canada left ACTRA and became an independent union.
The Writer’s Guild of Canada, however, is different from the traditional union. There is no central workplace in the writing industry, and members are not employees, they are independent contractors. This creates legal complications as Provincial labour legislation states that only employees, not independent contractors (with exception of construction workers), can bargain as a collective. This means that WGC members are bound to very tight restrictions in order to protect their rights and their work.
Read more about this topic: Writers Guild Of Canada
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of mankind interests us only as it exhibits a steady gain of truth and right, in the incessant conflict which it records between the material and the moral nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“If you look at the 150 years of modern China’s history since the Opium Wars, then you can’t avoid the conclusion that the last 15 years are the best 15 years in China’s modern history.”
—J. Stapleton Roy (b. 1935)