The 52nd Seattle International Film Festival kicks off Thursday with the opening night screening of
communist director Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters, a pro-union, anti-capitalist satire about a group of working-class hustlers struggling to survive in the modern American hellscape. Awkwardly, at the same time, the SIFF Cinema Workers Union (SCWU) say that SIFF needs to “do better for the workers.”
They’re now working without a contract (it expired April 23rd, and workers declined to extend it, arguing it was a “ploy” to prevent them from picketing during the festival), and say that new management is less willing to compromise on key issues like pay. SIFF says it offered to extend the contract “in anticipation of reduced capacity during the annual Festival.” They won’t meet at the bargaining table again until after the festival ends on May 17.
SIFF and the union have been in bargaining since January, and the nonprofit has provided only one wage proposal, with no concessions.
The Stranger