In Uncertain Times for Entertainment, IATSE Reformers See a Way Forward

The International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) will hold its Quadrennial Convention in Hawaii starting July 28. The 2025 “Quad” convention would be business as usual, if not for an upstart group of IATSE members in a reform caucus called CREW that believes they can fix some of their union’s worst flaws. The union covers 170,000 entertainment workers in the U.S. and Canada.

“When I first started working in the film industry in the summer of 2021, I began to notice that many IATSE members had little faith that our union leadership could change anything in regards to bettering work conditions like eliminating ‘fraturdays” [work days that start Friday night and end Saturday morning],” said Juniper Jensen, a Local 700 Assistant Editor.

“It was also sobering to see how the electoral college system within IATSE pushed through a contract in 2021 that didn’t pass by popular vote amongst the membership,” said Jensen, who is based in New York and recently joined CREW.

Under the voting system that greenlighted that contract, a 50 percent-plus-one vote in any given local leads to 100 percent of that local’s electoral votes. While the members rejected the contract 50.4% no to 49.6% yes, the electoral vote was 188 against and 256 for ratification.

After that experience, members formed the Caucus of Rank-And-File Entertainment Workers (CREW), in 2022.

TAKING A STAND

Today, CREW is making efforts to reform IATSE around several core principals: Supporting Transparency, Accountability, New Ideas, and Democracy (STAND). The STAND convention platform contains 11 proposals for the IATSE convention that are focused on reforming everything from how the IATSE International President is elected (currently there’s no direct vote), to ending the electoral college-like system of voting for contracts.

“We have collectively built proposals with member input at every step of the way,” said Anthony Stracquadanio, a dolly grip in IATSE Local 52.

So why has the leadership gotten so distant from what members want?

“The less members know about their union, the less control they have over their union,” said Alex McCarron, a draftsperson in Local 52 and 829 in New York. “In the short term that ignorance benefits leadership, because it makes their jobs much easier; but over time it undermines their bargaining position as well. Without the members, leadership has no real power at the negotiating table, and gradually their power (and the union’s) slowly ebbs away.”

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“If CREW can organize individual members with common grievances into larger campaigns for change, we will make the union stronger in the process,” said McCarron.

Touring workers are dissatisfied, too. “I tour under a Pink Contract, which is negotiated by the International,” said an anonymous IATSE CREW member. “When the International negotiates our Pink Contract, it is people that I never voted for, and they do not generally listen to the road people’s input, unfortunately.”

“We want better housing and per diem,” said the anonymous member. “We also don’t want to work “Smusedays” anymore, [Sundays with double shows plus an overnight load-out plus travel plus a Monday load-in], but these issues have yet to be addressed by our negotiators.”

LOCAL BY LOCAL

Currently, the caucus is focused on organizing local by local to get support for the STAND platform, since the easiest way to get a proposal voted on at the Quad is through a majority endorsement of a local’s delegates.

Recently, one local voted to endorse CREW’s Remote Convention Attendance Resolution, which allows remote voting at all IATSE conventions. This proposal is designed to both save money for locals who cannot afford to send delegates to a distant convention, and to give voting access to delegates who cannot safely travel.

The caucus is also trying to get locals to hold meetings so that members can have conversations with their local leaders about Quadrennial proposals. Local 705 (Motion Picture Costumers in Los Angeles), and Local 488 (Studio Mechanics in the Pacific Northwest) were among the few locals in IATSE to allow for a town-hall style meeting about the convention between members and delegates.

Sadly, most IATSE locals aren’t offering members a meeting to discuss proposals for the convention with their local delegates, even though those delegates are supposed to represent their members.

SPEEDBUMPS

As a member of IATSE Local 728 Set Lighting in Los Angeles, I brought CREW’s 11 proposals to the 728 delegation with the support of several delegates, but they rejected all of them in a delegates meeting I wasn’t allowed to attend. There were also no polls or discussions with members beforehand and they refused to tell me why the proposals were rejected or how I could amend them to get approved. To me, that seems like a system that’s designed to stop change from happening.

Despite all the roadblocks in front of us and a large union that is resistant to change, CREW members like me are optimistic that we are creating something special that will help our fellow IATSE members. “I was a founding member,” said Maggie Goll, a Special Effects Technician in Local 44, Property Craftspersons. “I believe that empowering IATSE members … will help revitalize not just IATSE but also the greater labor landscape in the coming years.”

“CREW is run democratically and is an example of what is lacking from our leadership,” said Stracquadanio. We even send out polls and allow all members to vote remotely after every membership meeting to ensure transparency and allow everyone to participate, something our union often doesn’t do.”

When asked “what do you think CREW offers IATSE members that they aren’t getting from their leadership?” Goll responded with one word: “Hope.”

Greg Loebell is a member of IATSE local 728 Set Lighting in Los Angeles, and a member of CREW. For more on CREW, go to iatsecrew.com or follow their Instagram here.