The production staff at Shakespeare Theatre Company has filed for union recognition, citing labor issues including low wages compared to other regional theaters and unfair treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shakespeare’s production employees were in talks with with IATSE Local 22, the union that represents the D.C. region’s stagehands, before the pandemic. But crew members involved in the effort say the situation escalated last winter during production of Once Upon A One More Time, a glitzy pre-Broadway musical inspired by Britney Spears’ catalogue running at Shakespeare’s Sidney Harman Hall and starring former American Idol runner-up Justin Guarini.

Andrew Wilkinson, who works as a deck chief managing the building and striking of sets at Shakespeare’s Klein Theatre on Seventh Street NW, says one performance in particular stood out.

“Several crew members were out, either with COVID issues or injuries, and we were forced to perform a show in extremely unsafe conditions, because of those missing people,” Wilkinson says of the Britney musical. “People were having to do jobs they had never done before. One person had to be replaced by several different people doing different jobs.”

With regard to that performance, Shakespeare Theatre Company spokesperson Brittany Proudfoot-Ginder acknowledged that there was one performance of Once Upon A One More Time when more crew members called out than usual due to COVID from outside exposure and non-COVID-related colds.

“We were advised by our Stage Management team that there was a safe way to move forward with the crew we did have,” Proudfoot-Ginder said in an email. “That performance was significantly modified; we reduced or completely cut a number of theatrical elements from the show to keep our cast and crew safe. We trust our Stage Management team and our crew and the show proceeded without incident.”

Proudfoot-Ginder added that the company has a team of safety managers who’ve crafted health policies that “follow or often exceed D.C. and CDC guidelines.”

“During Once Upon a One More Time, we responded to the rise in omicron by increasing testing and strengthening our safety procedures,” Proudfoot-Ginder says. “We have never asked anyone to perform any duties on or off stage while they were testing positive. We have had consistent success with our safety policies and have continued to show dedication to the health and safety of our company.”

Still, crew members told Local 22 that they did not feel like they were being respected or treated the same as all the other members of the company, Nicholas Arancibia, chair of Local 22’s organizing committee, tells DCist/WAMU.

Organizers want the bargaining unit to represent about 50 full-time and part-time production staffers, per Arancibia, though he says Shakespeare is arguing that the part-time staff would not qualify. (“We believe that all STC employees who share in our long-term commitment to theater in the District should and will have access to the vote,” Proudfoot-Ginder says.)

A hearing with the National Labor Review Board to determine who qualifies for the bargaining unit is scheduled for June 10 and a vote will follow shortly after that.

The crew members’ main goal is to create a collective bargaining unit and negotiate a contract that protects the backstage workers as much as the actors and increases pay raises across the staff, according to assistant stage operations supervisor Rob Garner.

“We feel the Shakespeare has been underpaying its skilled labor, and has not kept up with other theaters in the area, but also with inflation, and the rising cost of living in the city,” Garner says.

In the early stages of the pandemic, STC fully closed for 18 months. During that period, the theater worked to retain or furlough its staff “until the money ran out,” Proudfoot-Ginder said.

“At that point, STC was forced to make the devastatingly painful call to reduce our production and administrative staff,” she says.

In the summer of 2020, STC laid off a third of its employees and cut its budget by 44% , which the organizing staff found especially cruel because it left these workers without health care, Arancibia says.

“They want to be paid slightly more. They want to not have to work extravagantly long hours regularly. And they want their temporary hires, who do not get benefits, to be able to earn some benefits … especially because they are fundamentally the backbone of D.C. theater,” he adds.

Proudfoot-Ginder adds that STC raised its minimum salary to $20.50 per hour for all full-time staff — higher than D.C.’s current minimum wage of $15.20. But STC’s wage is still not high enough to meet the rising cost of living in the D.C. area, according to the union organizers.

Unlike in New York and Chicago, stagehands at most D.C.-area theaters are not unionized. Wilkinson, the deck chief at STC, says that’s because many D.C. theaters are nonprofits. The list of IATSE-unionized D.C.-area venues is not long, featuring only a handful big names like the Kennedy Center, National Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Wolf Trap, Strathmore, and Capital One Arena. Signature Theatre technicians joined IATSE last year.

McIntyre hopes Shakespeare’s stagehands’ effort could portend a wave of organizing in the D.C. theater scene. He’s been in talks with production staff at multiple theaters about potentially following Signature’s and STC’s lead.

Wilkinson remains determined that his group’s effort will be successful: “I have been fighting for this,” he says, “since I started three years ago.”

Shakespeare’s leadership maintains that it will continue to be supportive of the entire staff.

“The pandemic has not been kind to theaters, but we wouldn’t be where we are without our hardworking production team,” Chris Jennings, STC’s executive director, said in a statement. “With a spirit of transparency, we are dedicated to continuing this conversation and addressing their concerns to bring us all toward a better STC. This is their vote, their voice. We’re here to listen and work together.”