1895
- 1995 100th
ANNIVERSARY
of Local 28, International Alliance Theatrical Stage
Employes, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the
United States, It's Territories and Canada, AFL-CIO, CLC The
year 1970 brought the 37 members of Local 28 together to celebrate our
75th Anniversary. The City of Portland had recently completed the
renovation of the Civic Auditorium which now offered a comfortable home to
the #1 arts organization in the state, the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. With
all the other presenters vying for the dates left free by the Symphony.
The Auditorium was booked as fully as any hall in the country. The
Memorial Coliseum was 10 years old and going strong and a few shows were
going into the aging Paramount. The local worked under a master agreement
signed with the Oregon Symphony, Portland Opera, Celebrity Attractions and
several smaller presenters. When local membership was insufficient to
cover large calls it was standard to call an assortment of fire fighters,
relatives, friends and neighbors to fill out the roster. In this way we
entered a period of unprecedented growth in entertainment in Portland.
At
this time Portland audiences were becoming enamored with the higher
production values offered by the touring Broadway shows being brought in
by Celebrity Attractions and the operas produced by Portland Opera
Association. And there was rock and roll. The advent of rock music and
touring bands ushered in a new age to the theater. Most of the old hands
dismissed rock shows as a flash in the pan, yet the 70's were filling in
with rock shows at the declining Paramount Theater, the ice arena at
Jantzen Beach, a variety of smaller venues and increasingly at the
Memorial Coliseum. The new technologies presented to the industry by rock
and roll were not to be underestimated. Initially minimal sound and light
systems were soon to expand exponentially, augmented by rigging developed
by the Disney on Parade shows. These systems were soon flying the larger
lighting trusses and sound clusters we are now familiar with.
It
was in 1970 that the Memorial Coliseum got it's break with the creation of
the Portland Trailblazers basketball franchise. The Blazer schedule filled
out enough dates so that in addition to the other shows there, the
Coliseum kept busy year round. In 1974 the local reached agreement with
the city's Exposition Recreation Commission to represent all maintenance
workers and provide all stage hands for arena shows at the Coliseum. Local
28 had been providing stagehand labor since the Coliseum opened but this
was the first contractual recognition of our jurisdiction for the venue
and the beginning of a long, healthy relationship with the Coliseum.
Stage
productions and rock shows became progressively larger during the late
70's and membership expanded to meet the needs of these shows. The first
women appeared on Local 28 stage crews in 1978, with the first woman
stagehand members admitted in 1979. Female participation burgeoned in 1981
when the local absorbed the wardrobe members from Local B-20 into our
ranks. This merger made sense because as backstage workers the wardrobe
members always received their calls from Local 28's business agent anyway.
The
early 80's saw more substantial growth as the Portland voters in their
infinite wisdom passed a bond measure to buy the old Paramount Theater and
refurbish it. Additional funds were allotted and raised to construct a new
building on the block just uphill from the Paramount. This would become
the New Theater Building of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts.
When the Paramount reopened it became the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall,
new home to the Oregon Symphony Orchestra. Because the Symphony moved in
1984, the Civic Auditorium was now to have a new life with increased
numbers of touring shows. Broadway shows, ballets and operas. To cope with
the growth in business, Local 28 in 1985 began a new state of Oregon
sanctioned apprenticeship program and began the screening of applicants
for stagehand work. A renewed emphasis on training of members became more
necessary as show business accompanied the rest of society into the
computer age.
To
great fanfare the New Theater Building opened in 1987, containing a small
300 seat "black box" theater, The Dolores Winningstad Theater
and the 900 seat Intermediate Theater. Following opening festivities the
Oregon Shakespeare Festival Portland, an offshoot of the famous Ashland,
Oregon company, secured the position of resident theater company for the
Intermediate Theater. This offered Portland audiences a high quality
theater season as a return on their investment. All PCPA offices moved to
the New Theater Building from the old offices at Civic Auditorium. The
ensuing expansion of services, staff and events meant the City of Portland
had lost it's ability to operate it's theaters without subsidized funding.
Rather than coming up with a tax based subsidy for PCPA, the city placed
PCPA under the aegis of the Exposition Recreation Commission in order to
make use of the Memorial Coliseum's cash surplus. Two years later as the
Oregon Convention Center came on line, the City joined with the regional
governing body METRO to form the Metropolitan Exposition Recreation
Commission to oversee the Coliseum, Convention Center and PCPA. By this
time membership had grown to the 120 mark where it remains to this day,
despite setbacks of the loss of maintenance workers at the Coliseum and
Convention Center.
The
1980's saw a surge in the number of film and video productions passing
through the region. Union Stagehands were working on some of the union
shoots but more often productions were non union, often with working
conditions on the sets that were unsafe, wage and hour laws were ignored
and worker dissatisfaction mounted. The production companies on these non
union shoots were most often off shoots of major studios that were under
IATSE contracts in Los Angles. In early 1992 International Representative
Stephen R. Flint obtained letters from Local 15, Seattle, Washington,
Local 28, Portland, Oregon, Local 93, Spokane, Washington and Local 675
Eugene, Oregon giving up their film jurisdiction. In 1992 with the
leadership of Local 28 Business Agent John DiSciullo and IATSE
Representative Sandra England, International President Alfred W. DiTolla
granted a charter on April 1 to form Local 488, Studio Mechanics of the
Pacific Northwest. The subsequent 3 years have seen membership in Local
488 in Oregon, Washington, northern Montana and Idaho explode to over 425
members, making it a force to contend with in the region. We are proud of
our current alliance with Local 488 and the area's film and video
community to establish a State of Oregon sponsored electrical training
program for our apprentice members.
The
year 1989 brought two mergers of note for Local 28. Sister Local 159,
Motion Picture Machine Operators had 57 members in 1970 and by 1989 there
only remained a handful of active members among a total membership of 17.
The advent of automated projection systems and anti unionism among movie
theater owners had cut so strongly into the ranks of Local 159 that, at
the urging of the International, they were merged into Local 28. Now with
stagehands, wardrobe workers and motion picture machine operators we
became a truly all purpose mixed local. The other merger of 1989 occurred
when, after years of competition, the two struggling local ballet
companies merged. Ballet Oregon and Pacific Ballet Theater joined forces
to form Oregon Ballet Theater, providing the final cornerstone to the
performing arts community in Portland.
In
the 1990's the immense popularity of the Portland Trailblazers coupled
with the age and small size of the now old Memorial Coliseum fostered a
need for a new arena to house the team. Plans were drawn up and a
partnership formed between the Blazer organization and the City of
Portland resulting in construction, now underway, of a new arena adjacent
to the Coliseum to be called the Rose Garden. As part of the deal the
Blazers took over the operation of the Coliseum in July 1993. By July 1994
Local 28 had successfully negotiated a contract with the Oregon Arena
Corporation for all stagehands in both the Coliseum and the Rose Garden.
At
our Centennial Celebration we would be remiss not to thank the presenters
whose efforts give us the opportunity to practice our craft. We offer a
special thanks to the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Portland Opera, Oregon
Ballet Theater, Double Tee Promotions, Oregon Children's Theater Company,
Portland Center Stage, Community Concerts (Live at the Civic), Jack
Roberts Productions, The Musical Theater Company, Dan Bean Presents,
Goodale & Barbieri, One Voice Productions (Singing Christmas Tree),
Tears of Joy Theater, Oregon Arena Corporation (Memorial Coliseum),
Portland Youth Philharmonic, Portland Arts and Lectures, Mike Pettite
Presentations, Inc., Tygres Heart Shakespeare Company and Portland Gay
Men's Chorus and many others who have brought entertainment to Portland
and work to Local 28. We start our second hundred years with a membership
of 132 and growing. Under the able leadership of our first woman
President, Sister Carol Thomas, we look forward to a strong future
dedicated to providing a skilled membership leading the way in the
Portland theater community.
-Thomas
D. Bugas
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