Some Theatrical Employees may follow other unions’ reform examples

Craig Chladney is busy. The president of Local 193 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), he recently said he “spent most of my day working Nelly at the Civic Center, then I got a call and now I'm running sound for Nelly's sister's girl-group at Big Al's. Running sound for rappers in a strip club one night and for an Indian cultural celebration in an auditorium another – you never know what the day is going to bring.”

 

Another IATSE worker said sometimes it's necessary to work every day for weeks with no days off (much less life outside of the job), and Chaldney said, “It's definitely not unusual to work many days in a row. In our industry, a day can be a 3-4 hour day, and it's not uncommon to do several 18-20 hour days in a row. It's an industry where if there's work, we work it, and if there's not, then we're off, and can be for out of work for quite a while.”

 

During the six-month twin strike by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), many IATSE members weren’t striking but nevertheless were affected, some will not have worked for almost a year because the film/television industry isn’t expected to be back at full production strength until next month.

 

The 170,000-member IATSE – representing sound engineers, stagehands, grips, sound mixers, camera operators, editors, lighting technicians, animators, set builders and more – supported the strike.

 

“It's nothing that directly affects my local,” Chladney said, “but the biggest arguments are the extreme long hours of a filming schedule as well as the crazy uptick in profits versus stagnant wages. It's definitely a national concern for the union.”

 

Meanwhile, some elements of IATSE are advocating for a stronger approach as negotiations on the union’s primary national contracts are expected to start in March.

 

The two contracts are the main pattern-setting agreements they work under: the Hollywood Basic Agreement (HBA) and the Area Standards Agreement (ASA), both of which expire July 31. The HBA covers about 40,000 members across more than a dozen locals; The ASA is patterned after the HBA and covers 20,000 additional workers nationwide.

 

Some members are unhappy with the last bargaining, in 2021. Then, IATSE’s rank and file barely rejected the proposed HBA and only just supported the ASA. But the international’s ratification process – in which members vote for delegates, who ultimately have the final, independent say – approved both tentative agreements, with a combined tally of 349-282.

 

Some IATSE workers have launched the Caucus of Rank-and-File Entertainment Workers (CREW)

“CREW came together [when] we realized that to get the change that we wanted, we had to form and organize outside the union and interlocally,” said sound mixer Victor Bouzi, a CREW member. “The last [negotiation], we got a 3% pay increase, but that did not keep up with inflation. And we need to bring the equity pay scale among the genders.”

 

CREW is advocating stronger contracts, better solidarity, member education and improved union democracy, a change to one member, one vote in direct elections for top leaders.

 

“In mid-state Illinois, the national contracts don't affect most of what we do, but they tend to set some of the standards going forth,” Chladney said. “Recent contracts with Hollywood were more significant than most just due to the fact that they were adding some very large new sections for things like AI and streaming and such, which is something that doesn't currently affect most of the other areas of our industry, but eventually probably will.”

 

IATSE has never gone on strike on a national, industrywide scale, but in a prepared statement a spokesperson for IATSE International said, “We will fight aggressively at the table to achieve a contract that reflects our members’ priorities and their invaluable contributions to the success of the entertainment industry.”

 

Elsewhere, union reform has happened, of course, from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union to UNITE HERE, and most notably, and recently shown, in bargaining by the revived Teamsters and successful strike by the UAW.

 

Whether Teamsters for a Democratic Union or Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAW-D), ending corruption has been one key, along with fighting autocracies where workers feel disconnected from union leadership and question the need for labor to organize.

 

Today, some loyal dissidents are reportedly pressing for change in the United Food and Commercial Workers for instance.

 

“Although UFCW has many progressive locals, it’s a complex organization dominated nationally by a culture of collaboration with its members’ employers,” wrote Peter Olney and Rand Wilson. 

 

“In 1979, the more progressive Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen merged with the Retail Clerks International Union to form the UFCW,” continued Olney (a retired ILWU organizing director) and Wilson (a long-time organizer who’s been with the Teamsters and established the Massachusetts Jobs with Justice). “The more conservative culture of the Retail Clerks, which largely favored employers, dominated the merger.”

 

Union democracy and mass participation are practical and strategically essential, argue Jane McAlevey and Abby Lawlor, co-authors of “Rules to Win By: Power and Participation in Union Negotiations.”

 

“There’s so little experience in the United States of workers in the working class getting the experience of what it means to govern and actually run something,” McAlevey says, pointing to efforts within the Amalgamated Transit Workers, which last year began “to move all of their local unions to transparent, big, and open negotiation.”

 

The approach, Lawlor adds, “has three core elements [to] negotiations that are big, open, and transparent.”

From central Illinois, it’s difficult to see the promise and pitfalls of IATSE and its CREW.

 

“The majority of members seem to be happy with the current International leadership,” Chladney said. “No union ever has 100% satisfaction, but it seems the good majority are behind their efforts.

 

“Nationally, there's always grumblings from a portion of the members no matter how good or bad a contract is, so everything is taken with a grain of salt,” he continued. “Every contract could always be better, but sometimes there's a point where you have to make compromises to get the job done.”