EXCLUSIVE: Staffers at some of Washington, D.C.’s most iconic music venues are digging their heels in on their desire to form a union, claiming that management has opted to voluntarily engage with the organizing efforts of some, but not others.
In November, I.M.P. — the company that owns 9:30 Club, The Anthem, The Atlantis and Lincoln Theatre, among others — voluntarily recognized the push from food service and other hospitality workers to form a union via Unite Here Local 25. The grassroots effort was originally a joint effort with door staff and production employees who sought to be represented by IATSE Locals 22 and 868. Those people now say they’ve been left in the dust.
I.M.P. management met with leadership from both IATSE locals within the last two weeks to discuss the effort, Deadline understands. However, things went sideways after management expressed doubts about whether the effort was supported by a majority of the production staff.
“I.M.P. reached out to Unite Here and signed an agreement and then effectively told the IATSE locals to go f*ck themselves,” says Christopher “Goose” Ruble, the secretary treasurer of IATSE Local 22 and a part-time rigger at the Anthem who is helping coordinate the unionizing effort. “They were confident that Unite Here’s unit was a cohesive unit that made sense, and they were not sure or not convinced that that was true for the production or box office workers.”
In a statement to Deadline, I.M.P. confirms that it has requested a secret ballot election via the National Labor Relations Board, “because it was not clear that union representation was what a majority of our production and box office employees wanted.”
A date for an NLRB election is currently being scheduled.
I.M.P. notified the staff of the decision to request an election in a December 5 email, which has been reviewed by Deadline, reiterating management’s skepticism regarding the desires of the staff to form a union and warning employees that “joining a union is not something you should take lightly and it is not a decision that can be easily undone.”
Sierra Quimby, a lighting designer who has worked for IMP’s venues in multiple capacities for more than 11 years, tells Deadline that it “became pretty apparent that management at I.M.P. was treating the IATSE bargaining unit differently than the Unite Here bargaining unit pretty early on.”
Per several sources, production workers faced hurdles almost immediately in their organizing push, and management remained evasive even as they engaged directly with Unite Here regarding the union that the venues’ hospitality workers were forming. While that group is now working to secure their first union contract, production workers seeking IATSE representation are still trying to get management to accept their desire to organize in the first place.
Within days of delivering their petition to management, staffers say posters appeared in employee-only areas of the facilities that purported to be “unionization questions and answers.” The posters include some deterring language regarding unions, including a message that “union representation would change how you and I.M.P. interact on important issues and employee programs.”
“This goes beyond core issues like wages and scheduling, it would impact every facet of employment,” one of the posters, which has been reviewed by Deadline, reads.
Another portion of the poster apprises that staff “will no longer be able to have individual discussions with management” about terms of employment.
To illustrate the support for the union effort, a photo petition has since been delivered to management, in addition to the signature-only petition that was handed over in October alongside the hospitality workers’ own petition to organize with Unite Here. The latest photo petition from production crew encompasses full- and part-time staff across all four locations.
Deadline understands that Unite Here’s bargaining unit delivered a photo petition from the start, but there were initially some “concerns” among production staff about attaching their image to their own efforts for fear of retaliation from employers in the city. Including staff photos on the petition was intended to be a show of strength, to essentially prove the group comprises more than half of the workers who would make up the bargaining unit.
Ruble says that I.M.P. has since “demanded that we go to the NLRB in order to have a hearing to determine the appropriate size and nature of the bargaining unit.”
I.M.P. denied any wrongdoing or interference regarding employees’ unionization efforts, calling suggestions to the contrary “part of the predictable playbook to try and pressure employers and employees into making an important decision that should only be made with all the facts, and obviously these claims aren’t based in reality.”
“We just weeks ago voluntarily recognized Unite Here Local 25 because it was clearly what a majority of our bartenders, service and event staff wanted, and we are already moving forward with bargaining in good faith to reach a contract,” the statement continued. “That there is confusion about basic details like whether we are moving forward with a vote shows how IATSE is already sowing misinformation. We will continue to make sure our employees know the facts so their voices can be heard, and as we’ve said, we will accept whatever outcome.”
