The rise up inside Medieval Instances’ Southern California fort has unfold to a different wing.
The fort’s sound and lighting technicians knowledgeable the corporate Tuesday that they intend to unionize, submitting a petition for a union election with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board. The fort’s present solid shaped a union of their very own final yr and have been on strike since February.
In a letter declaring their intentions, the technicians mentioned they determined to unionize partially due to how administration handled them throughout their co-workers’ work stoppage, “whereby we have been wrongfully accused of sabotage.”
The employees mentioned they plan to affix the Worldwide Alliance of Theatrical Stage Staff Native 504, the union that represents stagehands at Disneyland. Of their letter, the employees mentioned they need Medieval Instances to pay higher consideration to security and enhance wages to “meet trade requirements.”
“We don't take this determination frivolously, and this vote is the result of months of determination making concerning the way forward for our division and the adjustments we search,” the letter to administration mentioned.
The bargaining unit would come with round a dozen staff.
Medieval Instances has struggled to quell a employee rebellion that started final summer time, when the present solid, knights and stablehands at its New Jersey fort joined the American Guild of Selection Artists. Performers on the California fort, in Buena Park, quickly adopted go well with and joined the AGVA.
Till now, not one of the technical staff who produce the corporate’s reveals had requested a union election. If the California staff are profitable, the hassle might unfold to the identical team of workers at different castles.
“We had at all times sort of joked about unionizing. Plenty of technical jobs [in entertainment] are already unionized,” mentioned Emily Schmidt, a sound and lighting tech. “After the strike occurred, it obtained much more critical.”
The fort’s present solid and knights declared an “unfair labor follow” strike on Feb. 11, accusing the corporate of bargaining in dangerous religion and making an attempt to silence them on social media. A lot of the bargaining unit refused to work and held a picket line outdoors the fort, asking prospects to not cross it.
“We had at all times sort of joked about unionizing .... After the strike occurred, it obtained much more critical.”
- Emily Schmidt, sound and lighting technician at Medieval Instances
The technicians weren't a part of the union and due to this fact continued working, however Schmidt mentioned a lot of them supported the strikers for making an attempt to enhance their jobs. It was by means of the fort’s picket line that the sound and lighting technicians met employees from IATSE.
“We now have our personal legitimate causes to do that,” Schmidt mentioned of the technicians. “That mentioned, I don’t know if we'd have had the drive to unionize if the occasions of the strike hadn’t occurred.”
Medieval Instances has strongly opposed staff’ efforts at unionization. In New Jersey, the corporate deployed an anti-union advisor at a price of $3,200 per day, plus bills, to discourage the formation of a union there. Managers additionally held conferences on the California fort aimed toward tamping down the union effort.
In October, the corporate filed a lawsuit in opposition to AGVA alleging trademark infringement due to the identify and brand staff had adopted for his or her union, Medieval Instances Performers United. Later, the corporate appeared to have filed trademark infringement complaints in opposition to the social media accounts maintained by union staff on the California fort. The employees’ TikTok account was banned.
Employees filed unfair labor follow prices with the labor board, saying the corporate was making an attempt to bully them into silence.
The sound and lighting staff requested that the corporate voluntarily acknowledge their union with IATSE ― an unlikely situation, contemplating the corporate’s opposition to the sooner efforts. It’s extra seemingly that the labor board would schedule a secret-ballot election as long as sufficient staff signed union playing cards.
An IATSE consultant mentioned the union had the backing of an awesome majority of staff within the proposed bargaining unit.
Of their letter to administration, the employees mentioned they have been “proud and excited to affix a corporation whose members are handled with dignity and respect.”
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