The Association of International Comedy Educators (AICE) is the union representing faculty, music directors, and facilitators at the Second City, the famous improvisational-comedy enterprise, in Chicago, Toronto, and New York City. In January 2022, AICE members in all three cities entered into collective bargaining negotiations with the Second City.

In December 2023, Second City management in Chicago submitted a final bargaining offer that was vetoed by AICE membership; in January, the union announced that it would be going on strike starting January 16. After a thirteen-hour negotiating session following the strike threat, the bargaining team finally approved a first contract. On January 20, AICE members in Chicago overwhelmingly voted to ratify the three-year collective bargaining agreement.

For Jacobin, Brynn Schaal spoke with AICE Chicago bargaining team members Bina Martin, Piero Procaccini, and Edmund O’Brien about Second City employees’ fight for a first contract and what they won.