ITV Soap Strike over Pay?

A tabloid report suggests that once more stars of ITV’s serial’s Emmerdale and Coronation Street may strike over proposed pay cuts.
Emmerdale is produced by ITV Yorkshire and Coronation Street by ITV Granada both owned by parent company ITVplc which is, according to The Daily Star, planning to cut on-screen wages by up to 30%.
The renegotiated contracts are said to effect how much is paid to actors for repeat fees as well as a cut in payment for each episode appearance.

An un-named actor on Coronation Street is reported as telling the paper: “It’s come out of nowhere and it’s potentially going to decimate our pay…. The repeat fees and online fees make up about 30% of our pay. We’re all very, very unhappy.
“There have been several high level meetings with our union reps and they’re locked in negotiations with ITV. We’ve had several meetings with them and they’re backing us all the way – but they can’t guarantee it won’t happen.”

Some of the key actors on Corrie are said to be immune to the cuts as their contracts are long running and won’t be effected. These include longest serving actor Bill Roache, Barbara Knox, Sue Nicholls and Helen Worth.
The anonymous actor also told the newspaper that performers are pondering strike action and added that soap actors don’t earn as much money as the public may think.
It isn’t the first time wage cuts have been mooted. In 2008 The Mirror reported that actors on Corrie were to face ‘huge pay cuts’ in order to ‘slash thousands off the show’s budget’ and in January this year The Sun reported cast were considering strike action over the possible reduction of repeat fees.