IATSE 868

01/29/2022

01/27/2022

Box Office workers at Capital One Hall in Tysons, VA have voted overwhelmingly to form a union with IATSE Local 868!

11/25/2021

Big corporate broadcasters make billions in profit every single year — but performers never see a penny for putting in the hard work that makes it all possible. We stand with Ken Casey, of Local 9-535 (Boston, MA) . It’s long past time for basic . Sign the AMFA petition to show your support: https://bit.ly/AMFA-fairpay

11/18/2021

Despite the hundreds of billions of dollars large media corporations like iHeartRadio make from advertisers, they never share a penny of that with the musicians who create the music. Musicians deserve compensation for work—just like everyone else. Sign the AMFA petition to show your support: https://bit.ly/AMFA-fairpay

11/10/2021

After two long years and a 10 hour mediation, I am thankful to report that we have a tentative agreement with Strathmore!

IATSE Local 868 Treasurers&Ticketsellers: labor union dedicated to protecting the rights of Ticketing professionals in the DC, MD, VA geographical areas

11/09/2021

09/24/2021

09/12/2021

While I am not a comfortable public speaker, and it is hard to hear with audiences heading to the theater to see Johnny Mathis, I am hoping that this interview will get the message out about how Strathmore is using the pandemic, time, money and effort to eliminate full-time positions and reduce part-time work. Money that would be better spent treating their “cared for” Ticket Office employees with kindness, respect and fairness. Thank you Brandy!

09/07/2021

Many of us think of Labor Day as the unofficial end of summer—and we sometimes forget it’s the day we recognize and celebrate the achievements of working people.

Whether you are spending time with your family or doing a gig this weekend—take pride in being a union member and part of the labor movement. We celebrate Labor Day because musicians and other working people joined together and said we deserve better—better wages, better working conditions, better benefits, and the right to join together in unison. Our power and strength comes from joining together.

We will honor working people today because musicians, along with others, fought for good wages, decent working conditions, healthcare, and the right to organize. AFM members know that many of us standing together are more powerful than any of us acting alone.

08/29/2021

NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Opera reached a four-year agreement with the union for its orchestra, the last major deal needed for the company to resume performances following a 1 1/2-year layoff caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

05/29/2021

But arts center CEO says kiosks would supplement ticket sellers, not replace them

05/15/2021

05/04/2021

JOIN US MAY 13, 2021 12-2PM! PLEASE POST OUR FLYER BELOW ON ALL YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS.

03/26/2021

Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the city would create a vaccination site for theater workers to try to help Broadway shows reopen by the fall.

03/23/2021

In 2008, Samantha Dulaney was appointed IATSE In-House Counsel, and in 2014, became General Counsel, she is the first woman to hold this post.

02/20/2021

Opera Season May Not Happen Unless Management Reinstates Workers and Acts Fairly

February 17, 2021

Union tells opera donors and lawmakers in D.C., NYC and Albany to withhold contributions and financial aid until the lockout of opera workers ends.

IATSE launches advertising campaign: “Without People the Opera is Nothing”

NEW YORK, NY - The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), which represents roughly 800 artistic and technical workers at the Metropolitan Opera, is warning in print and through social media that “unless the Met’s management returns to the bargaining table and treats workers fairly, there will be no opera in 2021.”

The advertisements, in response to The Met’s December lockout of IATSE members, begin with the headline: “The Metropolitan Opera Without People Is Nothing.” The ads caution that without additional negotiations: “The Metropolitan Opera House will remain dark and quiet, a vacant warehouse.”

In December, Peter Gelb, The Met’s general manager, announced that he was “locking out” stage technicians and shop crew members such as carpenters and electricians who build sets at The Met and who are represented by IATSE Local 1, cutting off their wages and stopping the production of sets at Met facilities for the 2021 opera season.

The Met’s new season is scheduled to begin in September. Gelb has demanded that IATSE members take a 30 percent. take-it-or-leave-it pay cut that would remain in effect long after the pandemic ends.

“Very few people were working at The Met in this period, barely affecting the bottom line,” said IATSE International President Matt Loeb. “Gelb is cruelly and cynically using the COVID-19 crisis as leverage to stab his workers in the back, cutting off their wages and healthcare payments during the pandemic and putting the future of the opera company in jeopardy.”

IATSE members who work as stagehands, ticket sellers, costumers, lighting designers and technicians, set designers and make-up artists, along with other dedicated Met employees, understand the strain COVID-19 is placing on the performing arts. They are willing to make accommodations during these difficult times. But they are unwilling to accept Gelb’s overreach.

The union is launching a lobbying effort in Washington, Albany and New York to ask lawmakers to exclude The Metropolitan Opera or any other employer in the performing arts from stimulus or arts funds if they have locked out their workers.

“Monies for the arts should not be used to beat up on artists and to fund $1,500-per-hour, union-busting consultants,” said IATSE Local 1 President James Claffey Jr. “This would be a misappropriation of funds.”

“We also know that lovers of opera and patrons of the arts have many choices as to where to spend their money,” Claffey Jr. added. “At this time we’re asking them to withhold contributions to The Met until management returns to the bargaining table and our members are returned to work.”

The union also is briefing government officials of The Met’s rumored plans to outsource set-design work to shops in Russia and other countries and of the inappropriateness of using funds designated to support the arts community here at home.

“It’s time to return to negotiations and settle this matter,” Loeb said. “The Met cannot operate without our people. If the curtain doesn’t go up, it would be a real opera tragedy.”

This is not the first time Gelb has tried to make up for a history of overspending, mismanagement and his own lavish lifestyle by placing unreasonable demands on his workforce. He threatened to lock out Met workers in 2014.

While he claims not to be taking compensation currently, his pay will likely be made up later through deferred compensation or bonuses. Gelb was paid over $2.1 million in combined pay and benefits for running the nonprofit, according to The Metropolitan Opera’s 2020 filing. He is sitting out the pandemic in a luxury midtown apartment provided by the opera company.

Six local unions of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) represent The Metropolitan Opera’s artistic and technical workers.

Withhold donations to the Met until artistic, stagecraft technicians and technical trades employees are back at work.