Introduction:        
        

This archive will show how IATSE Local 161, a local chapter of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) union, has addressed the challenges of the volatile entertainment industry by advocating for its membership. The Local’s membership comprises Script Supervisors, Production Coordinators and the Production Accountants in 23 states. During its existence, this local has steadily grown in size and in the number of crafts it represents whereas other union locals have decreased in size. This is because in the world of unions, the strength and development of a union local is defined by its ability to win real and substantial changes in their workplace for its members. Despite the challenges IATSE local 161 faces, it has been able to consistently win and represent the rank and file’s interest.  

The history of 161 is a history of this fight as it organized to get better contracts for its members from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (The AMPTP). These contracts set hours, working conditions, wages and health benefits, among others with the AMPTP in the Majors, or Area Standard Agreements (ASA). These agreements help set the standard for what is and is not acceptable in a work contract. It was 161’s ability to win contracts for its members that ultimately brought in new crafts like the Production Accountants into the local in 1999, at a time when this class of workers was not recognized by the AMPTP.  The local’s ability to bargain in good faith and win deals for its members made it possible for the union to steadily expand in size and scope.  

          Yet, the ability for the local to win victories for its members ebbed and flowed relative to the strength of entertainment unions vs. the AMPTP. Thus as a result of the internationalization of the film industry (covered in the chapter one of this publication), the losses and failed strikes from other unions like the Writers Guild of America (WGA) in 1989, and the weakening of labor protections domestically, the AMPTP was able to win concessions over workdays and working hours. This archive will point to the ways in which key labor struggles in the entertainment industry and the global COVID-19 epidemic have informed and evolved the mission for the local and the national union to advocate for a stronger bargaining position.

In particular the strength of IATSE could be seen in the 2021 failed strike authorization which did see the International Union gain everything it demanded in its contract negotiations. The post COVID 19 labor upsurge would see thousands of members organize at the local and national levels for the IATSE local and the IATSE International for key organizing campaigns like Stand with Production, a movement to organize production departments all across the U.S. The union’s ability to fight and win improvements for its members is proportional to the overall health of the national labor movement, and as entertainment businesses began to expand internationally in the 1950s, this movement’s health receded. This process will be explored in the next chapter.