Stagehands say conditions improved after Yacht Club picket

August 21, 2025 by

Local 13 members and supporters picket outside the stagehands’ gate during the Minnesota Yacht Club festival. (submitted photo)

Stagehands who worked the Minnesota Yacht Club festival in St. Paul last month got a bump in pay after union members set up a picket line outside the three-day event, IATSE Local 13 says.

“The picket worked, and I’m very proud that we put it up,” Local 13 business agent Kellie Larson said. “The goal was to inform workers that their working conditions were subpar, and we were able, through the informational picket, to get those conditions brought up to something that was better.”

Local 13 announced it would picket the Minnesota Yacht Club, which drew crowds of around 35,000 to Harriet Island July 17-19, after union members rejected a contract proposal from the live-events company behind the festival, RockForce Labor.

The wages, benefit contributions and work rules in RockForce Labor’s offer lagged area standards set by union stagehands in their contracts with local performing-arts venues, Larson said.

“They put up a hard final offer, I brought that to my membership and they voted it down,” she said. “They said they would rather bring awareness to the public that this was not safe or standard working practices.”

Timing played into the decision, too. Local 13 is currently in bargaining over its arena contracts, and union members worried that agreeing to a substandard contract, even temporarily, would send the wrong message to local employers.

“If I take a lowball offer in that way, just ‘to take the deal,’ I would be undercutting all of the working conditions we have in the Twin Cities,” Larson said.

Among the provisions the union found unacceptable were terms of the so-called “turnaround time,” the gap between when stagehands wrap work on one show and start work on the next. RockForce wanted Yacht Club stagehands to tear down after the last act ended its show and be back to work within six hours, Larson said. Local 13’s contracts provide at least eight hours.

“We start work when everyone leaves, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.,” she explained. “It’s hard work, and it’s dark, especially at outdoor festivals. You’re walking out of the place at 2 a.m. and walking back in six hours later for sound check? That’s really tight.”

Stagehands install speaker stacks and sound gear, stage lighting, monitors and more. For festivals like Yacht Club, work typically starts early, as stagehands unload and install gear for each act, then run it through a sound check.

“That’s five or six different looks we have to go through,” Larson said. “Sound check for band No. 1, let’s say Green Day, is at 8 a.m. We do a 90-minute sound check and start falling back to each act that will come before them. All day, we’re just unloading gear, doing sound checks, setting up for the next band.

“The work we do is dangerous and hard, and we’re doing it at a time of day that doesn’t make sense for most humans. That’s why we have some of these clauses in place, so we do have the best workers, with the best mental capacity to do the work.”

RockForce Labor launched this spring, consolidating nine live-events production companies into one, with eyes on luring business from “concerts, festivals, sporting events, live broadcasts, awards shows and corporate activities.”

It made a splash in the live-events industry, and Larson said she faced pressure from her international union to get a deal done and prevent any bad blood.

“I tried to bargain with the company,” she said. “I told them, ‘I can give on wages if you can get the turnaround time better. But the company just wouldn’t negotiate, and our members didn’t really feel safe working under those conditions.”

Instead, RockForce subcontracted the stagehands’ work to a Wisconsin-based company, and Local 13 members hit the picket line, where they engaged both concertgoers and stagehands passing through the gate.

“After three days on the line, what I heard from workers inside the gate was that they had transitioned from 1099s to W-2 work, with workers-comp insurance,” Larson said. “And they moved up to the $28-per-hour range. They also moved from no minimums and no double time to a 4-hour minimum and double time after midnight, which kicked in on Saturday.”

If true, it bodes well for Local 13 members’ chances of reaching a deal should the festival return to St. Paul next year.

“We’ll see what we can do to repair the relationship,” Larson said.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , ,

Twins’ summer concert series keeps Stagehands out in cold

July 11, 2023 by

IATSE Local 13 members supported an NHL game at Target Field last year.

Beyonce’s concert next Thursday at the University of Minnesota football stadium will create jobs for about 300 union stagehands – or about 300 more than will be working the Twins’ two-day rock festival at Target Field this weekend.

Local 13 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees today publicly called out the ball club and its festival partner, 555 Event Productions, for hiring independent contractors to cover stagehands’ work at TC Summer Fest this Friday and Saturday, despite the local’s repeated attempts to discuss solutions that would ensure a union presence.

“They don’t want to play ball,” Local 13 Business Manager Wendell Bell said.

The independent contractors, also known as “1099 workers,” will earn less than union scale, with no fringe benefits or coverage under workers’ compensation insurance. It’s a common arrangement for events produced by 555 Events, Bell said.

“These people are notorious throughout the Twin Cities for undermining union labor,” he said. “You’re not getting the quality. You’re not getting the safety. The pay is well under union scale. And if somebody gets hurt, where’s the recourse?”

TC Summer Fest is the Twins’ first attempt at a multi-day festival inside the downtown Minneapolis ballpark. Featured acts include The Killers, Imagine Dragons, The Flaming Lips and Death Cab for Cutie.

Bell, whose union represents about 3,000 behind-the-scenes workers at over 30 Twin Cities venues, began reaching out to the Twins about a month ago to discuss work on the festival, but he said the club “stonewalled” him until 10 days before the event. That left the union with too little time to mobilize an informational picket or public campaign.

When he did finally talk to a Twins executive, Bell said, attempts at a compromise that would have secured some work for union stagehands went nowhere.

“We just wanted to be considered in the jurisdiction of work that we have done in the past,” Bell said. “I understand the business, and there could have been some shared work recourse. That was never even considered or brought to our attention.”

Construction work on publicly funded stadiums in the Twin Cities has been covered by project labor agreements (PLAs), which require contractors bidding on the work to pay area-standard wages and fringe benefits. That frees up union contractors to offer bids based on quality and safety, rather than the lowest labor costs, and ensures laborers are covered by workers compensation.

But there is no comparable arrangement covering event-related contracting at publicly funded stadiums.

Meanwhile, union stagehands will be back at Target Field for the Pink show next month, working as loaders, production technicians, electricians, stage runners and more. That show’s promoter, Live Nation, has shown a preference for union stagehands in this market, Bell said.

“There is zero difference, no good reason why we aren’t out there this weekend in any kind of capacity,” Bell said. “It’s extreme, and that’s why we’re responding publicly.”

Filed Under: Community, Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,

Film stimulus would position Minnesota to capitalize on pent-up demand for new TV, movie production

March 18, 2021 by

Casey Lewis is a Minnesota actor and member of the SAG-AFTRA Twin Cities Local Board.

By Casey Lewis, SAG-AFTRA Twin Cities

Two things our country learned over the past devastating 12 months are that the American worker is the backbone of our economy, and we love to be told stories through movies and TV shows.

The pandemic forced this country to realize that day-to-day, week-to-week labor is what keeps our economy running strong. The success of our economy is not determined by what companies are being invested in or traded. It is determined by the labor that goes into the products and services those companies produce, but more importantly the health and safety of those doing the work. Take them out of the equation, and it all falls to pieces. Keep them healthy, safe and paid fairly, and they go out and keep the economy churning along by putting their hard-earned pay back into the system.

Americans have learned how to do some of our work remotely, but the strength of our success comes from people being able to come together safely to get the jobs done, be it in teaching, construction, transportation, food service or health care.

The other thing we all experienced together during our time apart was the joy and sense of normalcy we experienced watching movies and TV. Everyone’s got their preferences while they pass the time, escape reality, laugh or cry or feel everything in between, or learn about themselves or something new. The past year we’ve used these stories to help keep us sane, either watching them ourselves or plopping the little ones down in front of the box so we could get work or something else done. Entertainment has helped keep us going.

You wouldn’t be surprised to know making these products – movies and TV shows – also requires laborers to come together safely to get the job done. The entertainment industry, like so many others, took a massive hit during the pandemic. Writers are still churning out work. Producers are still able to line up deals. But with safety concerns it is logistically and financially difficult to bring workers together to produce content. It’s being done, but at a trickle. As you would expect there is a huge back up in the production line.

So, what does all this have to do with the lives and work of working people in Minnesota?

Two state lawmakers, Rep. Dave Lislegard and Sen. David J. Tomassoni, recently introduced tax credit production incentive bills in the Legislature, HF 1975 and SF 1986. Several union groups are supporting the measure, including the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the Teamsters, the Stagehands (IATSE) and SAG-AFTRA, which presents performers and broadcasters.

The film stimulus bill is designed to encourage out-of-state production companies to come here to make their content, employing Minnesotans, buying Minnesota goods and services, and paying Minnesota taxes, while building a foundation for that industry to thrive here. In return, after these production companies have paid 100% of the Minnesota payroll and sales taxes incurred during production, they can receive up to 25% tax credit on qualified expenses. These out of state production companies can then sell their full-value tax credits to Minnesota-based companies at a discount.

It is literally a win for the production company, a win for the Minnesota company getting the tax break, and a win for Minnesota, with the jobs and economic development created from the outside industry coming here to make their products – work that wouldn’t have come to Minnesota but for the incentive.

It’s important to note here that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) released a study in 2019 showing that movie and TV production created 2.6 million jobs in the U.S., paying $177 billion in wages. Of those 2.6 million jobs, two-thirds of the work was in “indirect industries,” like construction, transportation, retail, hospitality and others.

Bringing jobs and economic development to Minnesota under the proposed film stimulus bill would be an enormous boost to our economic recovery after the pandemic. Production companies have a backlog of content they are waiting to produce, and as demonstrated these past 12 months, there is a demand for it. But we need to act now.

To learn how you can support bringing these good, middle-class and blue-collar jobs to Minnesota, click here and act now. The legislative session is moving quickly, and we have a short window of opportunity.

– Casey Lewis is a Minnesota actor, member of the SAG-AFTRA Twin Cities Local Board and delegate to the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation.

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Photos: Unions join 2016 Ashley Rukes GLBT Pride Parade

June 27, 2016 by
Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy posed for a photo during the 2016 Ashley Rukes GLBT Pride Parade in Minneapolis.

Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy posed for a photo during the 2016 Ashley Rukes GLBT Pride Parade in Minneapolis.

Union families put their pride on display yesterday at the Ashley Rukes GLBT Pride Parade in downtown Minneapolis.

The Minnesota AFL-CIO has organized a contingent in the annual parade, part of the Twin Cities Pride Festival, for years. Turnout was particularly strong this year in the wake of the June 12 mass shooting inside a gay nightclub in Orlando.

Unions represented in the Minnesota AFL-CIO unit included Education Minnesota, AFSCME Council 5, the Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild, CWA Local 7250, IATSE Local 13 and the Minnesota Nurses Association, whose members drew loud cheers from spectators a day after the weeklong strike at five Allina Health facilities ended.

Several national unions banded together in the days following the June 12 shooting to provide support and resources to the Orlando community.

The American Federation of Teachers, the Service Employees, AFSCME and the National Education Association coordinated efforts to offer counseling to union members and their families who were affected by the shooting, assemble resources for parents and teachers to help children understand the news and point supporters toward blood donation and targeted fundraising efforts.

Teachers and parents can find resources for talking to kids about the Orlando attack at the AFT’s website www.sharemylesson.com/orlando. And visit ‪www.nea.org/orlando to find resources and opportunities to support the victims of the Orlando attack.

Filed Under: Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Minnesota AFL-CIO unveils Labor Pavilion programming for 2015 State Fair

August 25, 2015 by
Merritt Benton, a member of IATSE Local 13, runs cords along the Labor Pavilion’s stage. Local 13 donated, installed and will run the pavilion's sound and stage.

Merritt Benton, a member of IATSE Local 13, runs cords along the Labor Pavilion’s stage. Local 13 donated, installed and will run the pavilion’s sound and stage.

 

Make sure your visit to the Minnesota State Fair this year includes a stop at the Minnesota AFL-CIO Labor Pavilion, where programming includes live music and entertainment, interactive demonstrations and opportunities to learn about what unions do.

The State Fair runs Aug. 27 through Labor Day, Sept. 7. The Labor Pavilion, located at Dan Patch and Cooper, is open every day from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Members of two performance unions, SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity, will emcee proceedings every day except Labor Day, Minnesota AFL-CIO communications director Chris Shields said. Scheduled performers include roots musicians, swing bands, actors from the Chanhassen Dinner Theater, a magician and a ventriloquist, among others.

“The Labor Pavilion stage is a really good opportunity to showcase union performers,” Shields said, crediting Local 13 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees for donating, installing and running the stage and sound equipment.

[Daily entertainment listings for the Labor Pavilion are available online at the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s blog.]

Statewide and local unions will host kiosks at the Labor Pavilion, offering fairgoers information about their work and their most recent campaigns. Highlights include:

  • Twin Cities Carpenters Local 322 apprentices will build and raffle off a limited number of benches decorated with local sports teams’ logos.
  • Members of St. Paul Firefighters Local 21 will be at the pavilion to sell and sign their 2016 calendars, which benefit veterans’ charities.
  • The Minnesota AFL-CIO will conduct an informal, anonymous survey, asking fairgoers about their jobs, wages and working conditions. “The fair always has a good cross-section of people,” Shields said.
Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Stagehands’ youth movement pays off with organizing win at Varsity Theater

March 20, 2015 by

bbb75503272695698ad09fe38448f85e_400x400After an organizing drive fueled by young activists and backed by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, workers at the Varsity Theater in Dinkytown have a union.

It’s the first successful organizing campaign for IATSE Local 13 in “many years,” according to Michael Abramson, co-chair of the Twin Cities-based union’s Young Worker Committee.

The National Labor Relations Board conducted the election earlier this month. Contract negotiations with the Varsity are set to begin soon, with employees seeking higher wages, benefit contributions from their employer and better working conditions.

“There are a lot of safety risks doing this work,” Abramson, who does lighting work at the Guthrie Theater, said. “So protecting the ability for someone to speak up about things they see – to say, ‘these conditions are deplorable’ – is really critical.”

[Learn more about young worker groups and how they are energizing unions across the state on the Minnesota Young Workers Facebook page.]

To start, the new unit includes just four permanent light and sound technicians employed by the theater. But the victory gives Local 13 a toehold inside the facility, where stagehands often are hired as independent contractors, and could expand in the future.

Local 13 actually collected 35 signed cards requesting union representation during the organizing drive, which began last November. Abramson, fellow committee co-chair Robert Barnwell, Local 13 representative Matt Rice and an organizer from the international union attempted to track down every stagehand who had worked in the Varsity over the previous year.

“It took a couple months,” Abramson said. “We were finding people on Facebook, guessing at the spelling of their names, whatever we could do.”

By the time they were finished, the union had a more comprehensive roster of people who had worked at the Varsity than the theater did.

Although the unit was restricted to employees who had averaged four hours of work per week over the last three months, the outreach effort raised awareness of the union among stagehands – and could set the stage for organizing drives at other small venues across the metro.

“One guy who did (independent contractor) work at the Varsity but works predominantly at another venue, he signed the card,” Abramson remembered, “then he said, ‘So when are you guys coming over here?’”

The organizing drive is just one way Local 13’s Young Worker Committee is attempting to rebrand the union and enhance its image in the Twin Cities events and entertainment scene. The committee just wrapped up a t-shirt drive, collecting the free shirts given to stagehands by touring acts – “Fleetwood Mac Local Crew,” for example – and donating them to charity.

“We all have closets full of t-shirts we never wear,” Abramson. “So we set up collection sites around town and worked with the AFL-CIO Community Services program to make sure the shirts go to good use.

“Hopefully we’re shedding some of the images of what the union is – the crusty old guy, or the old man’s club. We’re trying to make a younger presence known.”

Abramson welcomes inquiries from workers in the industry looking to improve safety, wages, benefits and working conditions at their shops. Email him at michael_abramson@iatse13.org.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Bobby Kasper: Super Bowl will showcase union workers

May 29, 2014 by
Bobby Kasper

Bobby Kasper

It doesn’t take most people very long to realize I’m not a native Minnesotan. My New York accent is usually a dead giveaway. But after living here for 20-plus years, Minnesota is the place I’m proud to call home. That’s why I was thrilled to learn the Twin Cities will play host to Super Bowl LII in 2018. The biggest sporting event on U.S. soil is our opportunity to show off to the world the multitude of reasons Minnesota is a great place to live.

The Super Bowl will be a showcase for the work Minnesota’s union members do every day to make Minnesota the “quality-of-life state” it is. Just think of the many ways union workers will be on the front lines of the effort to showcase Minnesota to the rest of the world.

Our hospitality workers will be the first point of contact for the 100,000-plus visitors expected to descend on the region for the Super Bowl, including fans, media members and industry professionals. Members of UNITE HERE, the hospitality workers’ union, can be counted on to provide visitors with professional service in our hotels, bars and restaurants.

Members of Building Trades unions, of course, will have built the stadium in which the Super Bowl will be played, and members of the Service Employees International Union will keep it clean. Stagehands, members of IATSE Local 13, will ensure the circus of events leading up to the big game goes off without a hitch. Bus drivers and train operators, members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, will see that visitors get to all of their destinations safely, conveniently and on time.

Our public employees, members of AFSCME, will help the Twin Cities region roll out the welcome mat, readying our infrastructure, making our parks and public building shine, and plowing the snow and ice from our roads and bridges if necessary.

Speaking of ice, it’s rumored that our brothers and sisters in the Building Trades will once again tackle the tall task of building an eight-story Ice Palace in St. Paul. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but the palace could go up during Winter Carnival and remain for the Super Bowl. Volunteers from the Building Trades constructed the world’s largest ice castle the last time the Super Bowl came to Minnesota, in 1992.

So regardless of whether you’re a football fan or not, as Minnesotans we have plenty of reasons to be excited about Super Bowl LII coming to town. Sure, it will be cold. And yes, it will be crowded. But if we put our best foot forward – and with union members on the job, I’m confident we will – the Super Bowl has the potential to attract more visitors, more conventions and more big events to our region down the road. That’s good for hospitality workers, good for our local economy and good for tax revenues.

– Bobby Kasper is president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, with more than 150 affiliate unions representing more than 50,000 union members in the East Metro.

Filed Under: Labor Voices Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,