Stratford Shakespeare Festival and IATSE Reach Audience Services Agreement

Stage Directions: Last July the box office and call center at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival voted to join IATSE Local 357. Over the course of the next year the union and the Festival met to hammer out a contract. It was hard going, and on May 25 the union was in a strike position, ready to picket the opening of the Festival on May 28. A final bargaining session, though, produced a tentative contract on Sunday, May 27. The season opened with no pickets, and the contract was ratified by union membership on June 3. The new contract ensures the Festival won’t outsource the jobs, and also provides a 5.5% raise over the two-year agreement.