Degrassi: The Next Generation executive producer Stephen Stohn is, like many producers, looking to a higher power to bring an end to the ACTRA strike.

Not the big gal upstairs, but the Ontario Superior Court, which is expected to decide whether the unprecedented walkout - in which there are no pickets and no one is off the job - is legal.

"I'm very glad that it's before the courts now, and I hope that a decision comes soon," says Stohn, "because I suspect that until then there won't be any movement in negotiations.

"What upsets me more than anything is that from the beginning, these negotiations seem to have been carried on in public," he adds. "And whenever that happens it makes it 100 times harder to get a deal. If both sides can stop issuing public statements and get to talks behind closed doors we'll start seeing more progress."

The actors union took action against producers in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba on Jan. 8 after the two sides failed to negotiate a new Independent Production Agreement. On Jan. 10, Quebec joined the list, and ACTRA chief negotiator Stephen Waddell says his union is working to do the same in every other province by mid-February. (British Columbia, however, is covered under a different collective agreement.)

They're calling it a "business as usual" strike. Under its terms, any producer can sign a continuation letter with the union exempting them from the walkout - in exchange for a pay raise of 5% plus a 2% increase in retirement and insurance benefits. The list of productions that has signed is almost 100 titles long. ACTRA claims that everyone currently in production in the first four provinces has signed the continuation letters.

"This is unique in the history of labor relations, where a union goes on strike and all its members continue to work, and not only that, but they get a 5% increase in wages and 2% in retirement and benefits," says Waddell. "Clearly in the signing of these letters producers are abandoning their trade association... They've walked away from the CFTPA and its position in these negotiations."

Stohn disagrees. He believes that for any producer with hundreds of jobs on the line and delivery commitments to broadcasters it would be "pretty tempting" to sign such a letter, "and it wouldn't reflect on their feelings in the overall negotiations."

Stohn has not faced that decision himself, because his Epitome Pictures accelerated its Degrassi schedule to wrap before the IPA expired at the end of last year. Pending renewals, Degrassi goes back into production in mid-April.

CFTPA went to the Ontario Superior Court soon after the strike was called and filed lawsuits saying that both the strike and the continuation letters are illegal. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 23 and 24.

"The key message here is these continuation letters," says John Barrack, chief negotiator for the CFTPA. "You can't have them even if you are in a legal strike position, and moreover, they're not in a legal strike position."