In March 2020, twenty-one Stagehands at College Street Music Hall in New Haven, CT voted unanimously to unionize in an NLRB-supervised election. For the previous year-and-a-half, they have been fighting to obtain their first collective bargaining agreement at the venue. Negotiations had remained stalled over the Employer’s refusal to contribute to the IATSE industrywide healthcare plan. College Street had not provided any health insurance plan for its Stagehands.

Negotiations immediately ensued after a job action began last Friday. By late in the day, the Employer agreed to participate in the IATSE health insurance plan, and also made significant improvements to its wage proposals.

The parties have scheduled another negotiation session next Thursday, October 28 with the objective of resolving all outstanding bargaining issues, including language on minimum staffing and jurisdiction.

Last Friday’s job action was part of a recent wave of job actions across the country, in which unionized workforces have asserted their right to obtain improvements in pay, benefits, and working conditions.