IATSE Wins Contract with Trade Show Company

After a protracted battle, striking members of the International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) Columbus, Ohio Local 12 and Knoxville, Tennessee Local 197 reached a settlement agreement in July with the George Fern Company, a general service contractor with warehouse facilities in seven major cities. Both contracts are four-year agreements that provide for annual increases in wages and benefits. Both agreements also prohibit the use of subcontractors, which was an issue central to the dispute between the union and the company.

Local 12 had been bargaining with Fern for four years, and the company had had a proposal on the table for two years to cut wages and benefits by 30 percent or more. During these negotiations, Fern had increasingly subcontracted work to non-union labor brokers who now do approximately 85 percent of Fern’s work in Columbus, displacing Local 12 members and referents. Finally on March 13, 2009, Local 12 began striking the company.

Also in March, Knoxville-based Tennessee Local 197 began their own strike against Fern when they established a picket line on a show at the Nashville Convention Center. The picket line was honored by members of Nashville Local 46 and Teamster freight drivers. Members of Local 197 had gone ten years without an increase in wages or benefits while Fern had insisted on having contract language that would allow them to sub-contract to non-union labor brokers before getting any employees from Local 197, effectively side-stepping the Local.

IATSE Trade Show & Display Director Bill Gearns enlarged the battlefield, enlisting the support and aid of two dozen IA locals in 20 cities across the US, using picket lines, banners, leafleting and strikes to nationalize the effort. Among the coordinated efforts were those in Atlanta, where officers and members of Local 834 set up a picket line at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in downtown Atlanta; in Las Vegas, where Local 720 picketed a Fern show at Bally’s Hotel, and several IA locals in Cleveland joined with members of Cleveland Local 12 to picket a George Fern show at the Cleveland Convention Center.
In San Francisco, members of IATSE Local 16 demonstrated in front of the Wells Fargo Bank on Market Street June 3. The bank owns Wachovia Partners, which owns the George Fern Company.

IATSE International Rep. Joanne Sanders, Local 16 Vice President Eddie Raymond, Local 784 member David Besser and Local 16 member Nicholas Gerry handed out flyers to Wells Fargo customers asking them to contact the company and urge them to settle the current labor dispute between the George Fern Company and the union and end unfair labor practices.

International President Matthew Loeb said the hard-won victory by the IA underlines the importance of maintaining the national solidarity, the persistence and perseverance necessary to see that working members of the IATSE get the representation they deserve.

The IATSE is an International Union that represents members employed in the stagecraft, motion picture and television production, and trade show industries throughout the United States, its Territories, and Canada.

For more information, check www.iatse-intl.org.