By A.J. Catoline
Overcoming a near natural disaster, delegates to the IATSE 70th Quadrennial Convention united in camaraderie of union spirit with nearly 1,000 members from locals across the USA and Canada.
In the late afternoon of July 29, a tsunami warning was issued by the state of Hawaii in response to an 8.8 magnitude earthquake on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Committee meetings and caucuses were cancelled for the remainder of the day,
The IATSE Safety Committee alerted all delegates to elevate to safety above the 4th floor of the Sheraton Waikiki. Local 700 members gathered in a couple of ocean-view rooms as the hotel broadcast the earliest possible waves could arrive at 7:10 pm. Members tuned into safety instructions and made sure all delegates were accounted for on the Local 700 delegation chat thread.
After the hotel elevators shut down as a precaution, members waited out the night in their rooms, filling water bottles and bath tubs, charging devices, gathering snacks and tuning into press conferences by Hawaii officials, including Governor Josh Green who had just addressed the convention earlier that day. The tsunami warning was called off the next morning when the danger had passed, though there were reports of damage on other islands.
The convention resumed with guest speaker actress Annette Bening, Board Chair of the Entertainment Community Fund, which manages Local 700’s Hardship Fund. Her remarks brought levity to the delegates after a challenging night.
“When [IATSE President] Matt Loeb invited me here to Hawaii, I thought I would enjoy sitting on the beach sipping a Mai Tai, little did I know he would put my life in danger,” she quipped as the hall erupted in laughter.
Bening went on to report how the Fund helped thousands of IATSE members with hardship funds during the strikes, and provided career counseling and mental health services.
Earlier in the week at the District 2 convention, the resolution submitted jointly by the Editors Guild and and International Cinematographers Guild, calling for the IATSE to push for a federal tax incentive for film and TV production and post-production, passed unanimously. The resolution will be submitted to the quadrennial convention floor later in the week. And Local 700 delegates continued their networking with IATSE members of other locals at the Motion Picture and Television Caucus.
The IATSE Political Action Committee held a fundraiser dinner and raised over $47,000 to support pro-labor candidates in the mid-term elections.
Loeb warned the delegates that unions are under attack, and it would be negligent for the IATSE to sit out the fight for American workers. He promised to work with politicians of both parties to urge them to pass legislation to support organizing and a federal tax incentive to create more union jobs.
During convention proceedings, delegates repeatedly acknowledged the leadership of President Loeb for bringing energy to the various causes and campaigns of trade unionism, including supporting members with education and training, organizing disaster relief during the recent wild fires in Southern California, and initiatives to boost DEI programs.
“Diversity is our power and our strength and we are committed to be as strong and united as we can,” Loeb said to applause.
On the convention floor, Local 700 National Executive Director Emerita Cathy Repola spoke to the extraordinary solidarity between the 13 Hollywood locals that helped negotiate a strong Basic Agreement in 2024 which notched significant gains in wages, rest periods, and protections against AI workflows.
She thanked President Loeb and Vice President Mike Miller for allowing the bargaining process to be more transparent and inclusive of participation among rank-and-file members. This type of solidarity created a model which can be continued in future negotiations, Repola said to applause. Loeb thanked Repola for her years of dedicated service to the union.
Stay tuned to CineMontage for further coverage of the convention.
