Six days into their strikeNyc Alamo United Union, which includes staff at Alamo DrafthouseLower Manhattan and the Center of Brooklyn sites plan to bring their protests directly to The Theater Chain’s new parent company, Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Indiewire has learned that Wednesday, February 19, Brooklyn and Manhattan Strikers are planning to start their day picking outside Sony’s Manhattan office, located on 25 Madison Ave. In the afternoon, the groups plan to divide and go to their respective workplaces to the places to continue picking on the company’s lower Manhattan and the center of the Brooklyn sites at the same time.
NYC Alamo United group (which is part of United Auto Workers Local 2179, which represents staff at these two NYC sites) has picked outside both Lower Manhattan and the Center of the Brooklyn sites since the called strike on February 14.
Official representatives from NYC Alamo United shared with IndieWire, they are “on strike to demand that Alamo and Sony come to the table and negotiate in good faith over our contract, dismissal, staff deficiency and other effects. Alamo must take into account the lives of his workers and treat them with justice, dignity and respect. The ball is in their court. “
Alamo United represents two of only three Alamo seats organized with a trade union, the other is in Colorado. All three united Alamo Draftouses – of 42 theaters across the country – are now on strike and participate in work stops, even though the theaters remain in operation.
The union Colorado site, in Sloan’s Lake, voted on February 5 and 6 for Greenlight the potential work stop and officially approved its own strike on February 11. Hollywood Reporter reports That Colorado Union also expired on February 14, just a few hours before Manhattan and Brooklyn sites joined them.
In addition, on Monday February 3rd, UAW Local submitted 2179 in a formal complaint with the National Labor Relations Board Against Alamo Drafthouse and the parent company Sony Pictures EntertainmentWith reference to the refusal to provide information and refusal to negotiate/poor faith negotiations.
In a post on X, the union said that 70 workers were dismissed in Brooklyn and Manhattan and that the dismissals are “illegal” and an “unnecessary shooting” by the staff. The Union believes that burning has no economic purpose and was made in poor faith in the midst of negotiations on the union’s first contract. The employees were formally trade unions in October 2023.
An insider told Indiewire that the cuts to the NYC staff were part of Previously reported layoffs to both the season’s location staff and 9 percent of Alamo’s business staff (about 15 employees at corporate level), but that NYC settings were delayed while the company argued in good faith with the Union. Employees who have been released have been informed that they can apply again closer to the summer.
An insider near the company told IndieWire on Tuesday that all termination decisions were made by Alamo Drafthouse, not by the parent company Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Indiewire has reached representatives of both Sony and Alamo Drafthouse for further comments.
