Unions have long been a power player in America's labor history. Labor or trade unions are groups of people who have banded together in order to achieve common goals in terms of working conditions and benefits. When most people hear the word union, they think about the unions the United States was founded on: railroad workers or factory workers. What people may not realize, was even as early as 1863 there were theatrical unions. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada, or I.A.T.S.E. is a union the encompasses all members of the entertainment industry from the artisans to the craftspeople to the technicians, and covers theater, movies, television, and trade shows.
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, or I.A.T.S.E. was founded in 1893 as the National Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes (sic) by the American Federation of Labor. Like most other labor unions, I.A.T.S.E. was founded out of desperation. Greedy producers were paying the workers unfair wages and jobs were not secure. Unemployment was at an all-time high and low-wages and long hours called for action (I.A.T.S.E.). In 1886 the first theatrical protective union was created in New York, this would later become Local One. The members of this union used strikes to secure fair wages, but many producers attempted to thwart their efforts but hiring non-union workers. This proved disastrous when an improperly secured flat fell on one of the leading actors of the day. Now the producers were forced to take notice and hire skilled workers for their productions. In 1891, the west coast branch of the union was created. In 1893 the union branches were allied in a united cause and held their first Convention of the National Theatrical Stage Employees in New York City. By 1901, as films became popular in Canada, the union had branched out to se...