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BECTU General Secretary and UNI MEI President, Gerry Morrissey and IASTE Int. President and UNI MEI Vice President Mathew D. Loeb joined colleagues of the IA local 849 in Halifax to support locked-out workers of Egg Films. 

Leading the picketing on 28 July, IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb said, “The crew has not lost their resolve in spite of the employer's anti-union campaign aimed at discrediting Local 849. The IATSE will not lose our resolve to support them until this dispute is over".

Morrissey, who attended the IASTE Mid Summer Executive Board meeting said: "Film workers and their unions affiliated to UNI MEI around the world stand with colleagues of IA Local 849 and the entire IA family. This fight is our fight. Wherever prodcution companies undercut the fundamental right of workers to be represented by a union and collective bargaining, this is an attack on human rights.  We call on Egg films to end the lock-out and to return to the negotiation table with IATSE."

Egg Films walked away from negotiations with IATSE in March 2015 and locked out the film technicians union, Local 849. Egg Films, the largest producer of television commercials in Atlantic Canada, is a long-standing employer of the freelance film technicians represented by Local 849. Local 849 originally certified Egg Films in order to secure Workers Compensation Insurance, EI, CPP and contributions for the members engaged by Egg. Egg fought a three year legal battle to overturn the certification - a battle which ended in September, 2014 when the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear their appeal.

Egg’s lock-out of Local 849 has prompted the IATSE to take the extraordinary step of declaring Egg Films an Unfair Employer, barring any IATSE member from working for this employer. Declaring an employer unfair is a step of last resort for IATSE. Local 849 remains committed to negotiating a fair and equitable contract with Egg Films.

UNI MEI joins IATSE and its Local 849 urging Egg Films to return to the bargaining table and work out a deal that allows film technicians to continue doing great work for Egg with basic health and safety protections that every worker and their families deserve.

You can support Local 849: show your support in visiting the campaign's facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/dontberotten