Workers at the legendary Greenwich Village movie house Film Forum have filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board in an effort to join a United Auto Workers Local.
Film Forum workers filed the petition on Tuesday in a bid to have around 50 workers be represented in collective bargaining by UAW Local 2110, the New York-based culture and education-focused Local behind unions at Barnard College, the Bronx Museum of Arts, the ACLU, HarperCollins and Columbia University, among others. The staff members in the union’s desired bargaining unit include full- and part-time workers in theaters, administration, facilities, programming and publicity. The Local says an “overwhelming majority” of workers petitioned the NLRB.
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According to the Film Forum Union, which started a Twitter profile on Tuesday, the group is seeking to foster “a more equitable, ethical and sustainable workplace.” The group adds that, if the union is certified, contractual negotiations would cover issues of hiring practices, health and safety, wages, organizational development and rights in the workplace.
Film Forum had no comment when reached by The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday. Management has until May 5 to respond to the group’s petition under NLRB rules, Local 2110 says.
“We’re very excited to have Film Forum staff organizing with our union,” UAW Local 2110 president Maida Rosenstein said in a statement. “It’s fantastic to see so many workers in arts and culture unionize. Collective bargaining will give workers at Film Forum a voice in their employment conditions. Ultimately, unionizing will make Film Forum a stronger, more sustainable workplace for all.”
While U.S. movie theaters with significant unionized workforces are at present relatively few and far between, the labor movement has picked up in the space in recent years, and UAW Local 2110 has made inroads. The Local currently bargains on behalf of film workers with Film at Lincoln Center, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Anthology Film Archives. In early April, while locked in contract negotiations with management, Anthology Film Archives workers went on strike, advocating for living wages and a contract to bring to union members.
Though Film Forum boasts only four screens, the over 50-year-old theater has an outsized cultural footprint, with Natasha Lyonne recently telling THR she received her film education at the theater and that it was her “favorite place” in New York.
