I have heard
IATSE stagehands referred to as the highest paid, unskilled laborers in the US, mostly referring to older practices of many (too many) locals not having apprentice programs and where too many of the members are working at full scale, that have little or no real "training", other then hands-on learning.
That said, and as a member of an industry with 32 years experience, all of it with "
hand's on learning" and very little of it from an actual official educational experience, I can say that I consider myself as very experienced and skilled at what I do, and have many contacts with
IATSE Local 1 stagehands whose experience and skills are at the very least as good as mine, with many having vastly superior skills.
That skill
level is to be found in nearly every
IATSE stagehand local in the country as well as Canada.
Also to be found is many folks who's knowledge and skills are poor, and who seemingly tend to drag down the reputations of all those skilled stagehands.
Such is the nature of the business we are in.
IATSE as a whole has been one of the prime movers behind the
ESTA ETCP Electrical and Rigging certification programs, as a move toward legitimizing all of that "hands-on knowledge".
I have also been at the receiving end of an employer whose labor practices were so vile so as to force a unionization of the theater technical employees (it was a
AEA and
AFM Local 802 dinner theater - but NOT
IATSE) and whose pay rates were so far below minimum wage as to force a class action complaint by the US Dept. of Labor. The
house went
IATSE and simultaneously went out of business, which in retrospective was a good thing. The
IATSE International was extraordinarily supportive of us during that very difficult period.
Thus from my perspective, I can and have seen many of the benefits that being a member of
IATSE can bring, as well as having seen all of the abuses as mentioned above.
My take on the
IATSE locals as well as the International as a whole, is that compared to may similar national unions -
IBEW,
Teamsters, CSEA,
etc... is that most
IATSE locals as well as the International are far more in tune with the business of the business, as it were then many other unions. Witness the comments of IA International President Tom Short during the writers
strike against the movie business (he had nothing nice to say about the writers).
IATSE as a whole generally takes care of it's members and is very much aware of the economics of the industry and has been smart in adopting contracts that reflect the reality of the working and economic conditions.
In general, this is a better business to work in, whether you are an
IATSE member or not, thanks to well over 100 years of active and diligent support of
IATSE. We are all far better off as a result.
Steve Bailey
Brooklyn College