Following a one-day strike on July 11, the Syndicat des employé-es de l’événementiel-CSN, representing around 60 workers, reached a tentative deal late Friday night to avert additional labor disruption. The union revealed no details on the agreement in principle before union workers vote on the deal early next week. A formal ratification would clear the way for the 24th edition of the Fantasia Film Festival to kick off as planned on July 18 in .
“We are proud of the commitment and determination of our members in the negotiation process. The employer took act of our mobilization and showed open-mindedness regarding our last negotiation proposal. We are enthusiastic about the opportunity to present the tentative agreement to members at our upcoming general assembly,” Théa Trudeau-Tremblay, a spokesperson for the Syndicat des employé-es de l’événementiel-CSN, said in a statement on Saturday.
A representative for Fantasia confirmed to that a tentative deal had been reached at around 10 p.m. on Friday night.
Fantasia Fest organizers had no additional comment on the agreement in principle ahead of the union employees voting on the new labor deal. The Fantasia union, aligned with the Syndicat des employé-es de l’événementiel-CSN, signed their first collective agreement in September 2023, just after the film festival’s 2023 edition. But recent efforts to establish a minimum wage for unionized Fantasia employees at the bargaining table got hung up over .
