Last month, nearly 600 audience members arrived at the Cinerama SIFF Cinema Downtown for the first daytime screening of The Odyssey in 70mm, hungry for a Greek epic and chocolate popcorn. But unionized workers of the SIFF Cinema Workers Union (SCWU), meanwhile, had a hankering for a walkout.
As managers and non-union workers poured $9 IPAs at abandoned concessions posts, workers picketed every sold-out showing that Friday and Saturday to send a strong message: from their perspective, contract negotiations with SIFF were going poorly, and demands for stable hours, for increased pay, for SIFF to open the books and show them the money, had been met with bad faith bargaining.
In the weeks since, SIFF and the SCWU have been going back and forth at the bargaining table.
In interviews with The Stranger, union leaders and workers say that, while they feel SIFF is bargaining fairly, there’s not much concrete movement yet on staff cuts and wage increases.
In an email Friday, SIFF management said they have met at the bargaining table 21 times in the past six and a half months and remain “committed to good faith bargaining with the goal of a contract that is fair to both parties and is sustainable over the three-year contract term.” They did not elaborate on any specifics regarding negotiations or proposals under consideration.
Union chair Adrienne Tippins says workers want more guaranteed hours. Initially, SIFF proposed a weekly minimum of 12 hours, but only if the union agreed to one fewer staffer on shift at a time, an idea the union considered unacceptable.
Currently, floor staff workers make $23.10 per hour. Tippins says SIFF initially proposed a 2.5 percent hourly pay raise over the next two years. During contract negotiations in 2023, SIFF agreed to a 5 percent increase in one year, vaulting pay from $18 to $22 an hour. The union proposed the same annual increase across the three-year contract, which would raise wages to $29 an hour. That’s the same amount a single adult needs to make in Seattle to support themselves and their families, according to the MIT living wage calculator. SIFF rejected the union’s proposal.
The union is now potentially willing to cut staffing minimums to get there. Thursday, the union proposed reducing staffing levels at the SIFF Cinema Uptown and the SIFF Cinema Downtown by one person each shift to get $30 an hour by 2029.
SIFF did not give them an answer. They said they’ll have a response next week.
The real Charybdis/Scylla in all this is SIFF’s financial health. In the last year, SIFF has restructured the organization and conducted multiple rounds of layoffs. It also let SIFF Cinema Egyptian moulder in its sarcophagus for who knows how long, a controversial decision that necessarily cut hours for staff.
Workers are fully aware SIFF is struggling. But seeing the financial picture in its full un-glory would inform their proposals. It’s not a radical idea, as, during the recent contract fight between the staff at United Creatures of the Sea and the Sea Creatures restaurant group, management opened up their books to provide a look into how things were going.
“We do love our jobs,” Tippins said. “It’s not a wholly against the organization viewpoint, it’s a matter of being able to maintain living in this city and working in a place where you love what you do and you feel valued for doing that work.”
Optimism aside, some union members said if they don’t see concrete movement, there may be further action. Look out, Dune: Part Three ticket holders and Timothée Chalamet stans.
