Some sixty thousand members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), below-the-line workers in the film and television industry, have ratified the Basic Agreement and the Area Standards Agreement (ASA). The contracts passed the union’s Electoral College–style delegate system by a clear margin, with a combined delegate count of 349 yes to 282 no. But in raw numbers, the majority of ballots cast by members covered under the Basic Agreement, the larger of the two contracts, were against it: the breakdown was 49.6 percent yes to 50.4 percent no (the combined raw numbers for the two contracts are 50.3 percent yes to 49.7 percent no). Turnout was higher than in previous contracts, with 72 percent of eligible members voting.

The Basic Agreement passing even as the majority of ballots were against it is a worst-case scenario for the newly energized membership, whose experience of time off from production jobs at the start of the pandemic combined with the tighter labor market to heighten their expectations of what work can and should be. Some of those members will feel that the contract was forced on them undemocratically, even as they were ready and willing to strike. Indeed, a similar experience in the Teamsters, where the majority of members voted down the massive UPS contract only to have it forced on them anyway, led to a restructuring of the union, and may well lead the incumbent-backed slate to lose the current leadership election.

IATSE’s voting system is as follows: each of the locals have a number of delegates based on their size. Within each local, every member casts a ballot, with a winner-take-all result. For example, members of the largest local covered by the agreements, Local 600, voted 48 to 52 percent to reject the proposed contract, so all of their delegate votes were “no,” while 51.9 percent of ballots cast by members of Local 700, another large local, were “yes,” so all the local’s delegates cast “yes” votes.