Under ACTRA’s Constitution, a group of one hundred (100) members can require ACTRA to proceed with a referendum vote to change the Constitution.
Your National Council and Manitoba National Councillor have expressed concerns about the referendum and recommends that membership not support this referendum.
ACTRA RECOMMENDS MEMBERS VOTE NO
What is being proposed?
FAQ
Where has this referendum come from?
Members have a right to initiate petitions to make changes to the ACTRA Constitution under article 1103. This gives members the ability to seek wide support from fellow members (under article 1103 petitioners need 100 individuals or 50% of a branch membership, whichever is smaller for a petition to proceed) to make suggestions to improve the operation of the union. Under the constitution all changes must be put to a vote of the whole membership for the membership to decide the way forward of our union.
While we know which members have signed the petition and support the intent of change, it is unclear to ACTRA who initiated the petition. They have engaged a lawyer and are refusing to meet with ACTRA staff to work out how we can meet the intent of the request while ensuring we don’t accidentally fall to some unintended consequences through the application of the current proposal. Under article 1103, ACTRA council/executive should have an opportunity to rectify the situation. However, by refusing to engage, the petitioners are preventing the constitutional requirements to be met and limiting the elected members’ ability to address any desired improvements by working with the members concerned.
What is the timeline for this referendum?
Voting opened on May 29, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. CT and closes on June 20 at 11:00 a.m. CT.
What does this proposal mean for the organization?
Increased costs at a time when members are asking us to tighten our belts. As this would be a new requirement ACTRA National would need to take on more staffing and make changes to its reporting systems to be able to prepare and ensure the accuracy of this reporting every quarter rather than increasing the workload on an already small national finance team. This along with the changes needed to the financial systems could cost $300,000 of new spending. ACTRA National presently releases financial information to members on its website back to 2010.
What about ACTRA Manitoba?
ACTRA Manitoba already has a reporting process through financial updates provided to your elected Council at our Council Meetings and the audited financial statement that is released during the Annual General Meeting every year. If ACTRA Manitoba had to release unaudited financial statements every quarter, there would be increased costs for the organization making sure this information is accurate. The vast majority of the cost would be borne by National as they provide the bookkeeping and finance department for the regional branches. Locally, this would mean that our small staff would spend more time in financial reporting and less time addressing the many other member focussed priorities, such as the enforcement of the collective agreement and ensuring safe working conditions and receipt of performers wages.
Why would this cost more to achieve?
Presently ACTRA National has staff to meet the needs of running the day-to-day operations. If they were going to add the process of creating reports and financial schedules, they would need to take on extra staff to ensure these are created accurately and on time. At a time when the industry is down and we need to care for every dollar we have, adding cost to produce unaudited financials is not a fiscally prudent thing to do.
When can we see ACTRA Nationals Finances?
Right now, the organization’s audited finances back to 2010 are available here. If you have questions about the finances, you can email finance@actra.ca.
What about ACTRA Manitoba’s finances?
You can check those out on our website – we continue adding statements from years prior. Financial Statements – ACTRA Manitoba
Who Can Vote?
Full Members in Good Standing are eligible to vote.