Members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 634 gathered outside the gates of Bell Park Thursday afternoon to stage an informational protest about what they said was an unfair end to a “gentleman's” agreement.
Since 1998, members of IATSE were hired to set up and tear down all of the stage equipment, including sound and lighting, at Northern Lights Festival Boréal (NLFB).
However, “a couple of years ago (in 2004) they made the decision not to use workers from our local, and we were never given an opportunity to negotiate or discuss what the issues might have been,” said Dawn Graham, president of IATSE.
“The technical director at the time told us our labour costs were too high, but we know that's something you sit down and negotiate.”
She explained she maintains a family membership with the festival and is entitled to attend the annual general meeting and view the financial statements.
“They actually appear to be paying more for their sound and light production of the festival now than they did when they contracted the members of IATSE,” Graham continued. “It doesn't appear that it's a completely accurate statement that we were too expensive.
“That's the only message we've received other than they're not actually hiring any additional labour.”
However, Paul Loewenberg, chair and artistic director of NLFB, said a change in formatting to the main stage of the festival has greatly reduced the need for hiring extra labour.
“We haven't needed to expand our labour contingent for the set up and tear down for the last couple years,” he said. “The set up and tear down was handled completely by the sound company that was providing the production for the festival.”
Loewenberg explained a tender was issued to all local companies in northern Ontario, and “whoever could meet the requested specifications at a fair price would be awarded the contract.”
The company, which NLFB has contracted for the past two years, is based in North Bay. According to the festival chair, it is the only company in northern Ontario offering the type of equipment requested by the artists booked for the festival.
“We are happy that a northern Ontario company gets to meet the contract and we get to keep the money in northern Ontario,” he said. “We certainly appreciate the work they do and we have assured them that if we do need to hire extra labour, we will call them. We've met with the union and the mediator and told them all the same story.”
This was the second year the picketers were out on the setup day of the festival.
Graham said the festival has had a long relationship with labour groups in the community but that the connection had diminished over the years.
“The festival has been in the community for a very long time and many labour groups have given the festival a lot of support over the years,” she explained. “In fact in its founding years, 1972 and 1973, the Mine Mill Smelter Workers Local 598 CAW were instrumental in funding the festival to get it started. They didn't have any funds and the Local 598 actually gave them the funds up front to initiate the festival, and the festival later paid it back.
“So without labour, there wouldn't have been a festival to begin with,” she continued. “It just seems that over time, that connection and symbiosis between labour and this particular community festival seems to have gone by the wayside.”
