The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) General Executive Board voted unanimously to extend its endorsement to President Joe Biden upon the announcement of his 2024 reelection campaign for President of the United States. In 2020, President Biden pledged to be the most pro-union president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the opinion of the General Executive Board, he has fulfilled that promise time and again since taking office.
Our union has never had a more willing collaborator in the White House. The Biden-Harris Administration has actively sought to include the voices of behind-the-scenes entertainment workers in decisions that impact our industries and workplaces.
Looking solely at issues affecting IATSE and its members, Biden’s record of support is clear:
• Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act, providing IATSE members the relief they needed to stay safe until a return to work was possible.
• He formed the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, which has engaged IATSE to provide input on executive actions that will increase worker organizing and empowerment in our industries.
• His federal budgets have consistently requested additional federal arts funding, allowing Congress to achieve record funding levels for the NEA & NEH.
• His appointees to the National Labor Relations Board have dedicated their careers to protecting and advocating for workers.
• He reestablished the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities and appointed labor leaders to ensure workers had a seat at the table.
• His agency that oversees our country’s international trade collaborated with IATSE and other arts unions to report on the adverse impact of online piracy on workers.
• His Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, a former union member, visited IATSE Local 720 in Las Vegas to talk about the return of live events and the issues we still face.
• He spoke with IATSE members directly to learn the effects of the pandemic on our industries, and invited a young IATSE organizer to the White House to lift up our organizing successes in animation.
Following the vote, International President Matthew D. Loeb stated, “I am proud to confer this endorsement on behalf of the IATSE General Executive Board and once again stand with President Biden, in the way he has consistently stood with us. President Biden has given IATSE a seat at the table and unprecedented opportunities to weigh-in on policy decisions that stand to impact our members. We have been grateful for his partnership and look forward to continuing our shared fight to better the lives of working people across the country.”
