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IATSE history
IATSE company history timeline
On July 17, 1893, seventeen men in New York City met for the first convention of the National Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.
The rates for traveling men in 1896 were $25 a week for Property Men and $20 for Assistant Propertymen. The union grew quickly with locals springing up across the country.
In March 1908, the Clearers of New York City organized into a union.
The following story from 1916 tells of one of their strikes:
Local 33, Southern California’s first theatrical stage crafts labor union, saw its membership grow from 87 in January 1918 to 1626 in less than two years.
1918 also saw their first strike, as 1100 members of Local 33 walked off the sets in August and won higher wages and the right not to be fired for carrying a union card.
It was also at this time that summer festivals began cropping up around the country. The Sixties saw the first theatrical blackout since 1919, though it was due to a disagreement between actors and producers.
Further abuses to the workers eventually led the Carpenters to restore prop building and miniature set building to IATSE in 1924.
In 1932 an individual by the name of George E. Browne was the business manager of the Chicago stagehands Local 2 of the IATSE. Browne became associated with a man named William Bioff.
In 1933, another massive strike amongst Hollywood IA members occurred.
The Chicago Mafia was looking for new revenue streams since the repeal of Prohibition, and in 1934, installed George Browne as the IATSE president.
In December 1937, the White Rats successfully sued to lift the two-percent assessment.
In 1937 seventy-seven Set Decorators broke away from the IATSE to form their own association, the Society of Motion Picture Interior Decorators (SMPID,) and negotiated an independent contract with the Producers.
When some members of Local 37 (dubbed the “Local 37 White Rats”) launched a rebellion against mob control of the IATSE, the international broke up Local 37 and in 1939 formed four separate locals: Local 44 Propmakers and Set Decorators, Local 80 Grips, Local 727 Laborers, and Local 728.
On May 24, 1941, Browne and Bioff were indicted on federal racketeering charges in New York.
The law established a minimum wage (25 cents an hour), a 44 hour work week (reduced to 40 hours by 1941), and time and a half for overtime.
In 1943 they affiliated with the CSU Local 1421.
On October 5, 1944, the CSU began a strike against the major studios for recognition of the set decorators.
An arbitrator was appointed by the War Labor Board in February 1945 who ruled that the producers should recognize Local 1421's claim for jurisdiction over the set decorators.
On March 27, 1945, IATSE members released this statement:
In December of 1945 the team awarded “all trim and millwork on sets and stages” to the carpenters of the CSU and the “erection of sets on stages” to the IATSE grips.
The Producer's refusal to bargain is what extended and, in a sense, created the strike of 1945.
The committee came to Hollywood and held a number of hearings. It was hard for CSU to focus on structural and strategic change in the industry when the federation was bogged down in jurisdictional contests with the IATSE. These confrontations led directly to a lockout of CSU by the studios in September 1946.
By the time Congress came to Hollywood in 1947 to investigate jurisdictional disputes, Reagan had no praise for the CSU. On the other hand, he had not expressed the relentless anti-communism that marked a good deal of his public life.
By 1947 the CSU was slowly but surely disintegrating . The studios and IATSE combined to form a rival machinists local, leaving CSU machinists on the outside looking in.
By December 1948 the book finally was closed on the lockout, with the levying of fines totaling $9,650 on thirty-two of the picketers and jail sentences for five others.
By 1948 these hearings became a venue for venting bizarre accusations about Sorrell's alleged Communist Party membership.
On November 4, 1955, he was blown up by a bomb attached to the starter motor of his pickup truck in his driveway in Phoenix.
In 1962, 18 theatre projectionist and freelance film technicians were granted Charter 891 by IATSE International.
In 1978, the BC Film Commission (now Creative BC) was established with the mandate of selling BC's considerable physical assets and talented filmmakers to the world, particularly the United States.
In 1996, by order of the BC Labour Relations Board, the BC Council of Film Unions (BCCFU) was formed.
In 2004, in a move designed to help members plan for retirement, the Local established a group RRSP plan to which employers contribute and members can top-up on a voluntary basis.
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IATSE may also be known as or be related to IATSE and INT'L ALLIANCE OF THEATRICAL STAGE.