Workers at the Live Nation-owned music venues Summit Music Hall and the Marquis Theater will vote this month on whether to join Live Nation’s Fillmore Auditorium in unionizing for greater worker protections, according to the Denver-based organization they want to join.
“Despite an overwhelming majority of employees signing authorization cards, Live Nation has declined to voluntarily recognize the union,” organizers wrote in a Monday statement, adding that employees at Summit and the Marquis will hold an election later in June.
There are 25 to 30 eligible union members, said Max Peterson, business representative for the Denver Theatrical Stage, Film, & Exhibition Employees’ Union — under the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 7 — in an interview with The Denver Post.
The workers at Summit and Marquis coming together to form a union is in no way related to the current legal issues Live Nation is grappling with, Peterson added. In late May, a lawsuit was brought by the federal government and several states’ attorneys general alleging that the company that owns Ticketmaster holds a monopoly over live events that has harmed consumers.
“These fearless workers are just looking for a fair shake while working for one of the largest corporations in the industry,” he said. “When Live Nation purchased these venues, the crew were not represented by a union, and that continued into Live Nation’s Operation of these venues. Many of the incredibly skilled and capable people working behind the scenes in rock ‘n’ roll do not have the security and protection afforded by a collective bargaining agreement.”
If workers are successful in organizing, all Denver venues currently owned by Live Nation will have union stage crews, according to IATSE Local 7.
IATSE officials said Live Nation’s smaller clubs pay “the lowest rates of any of the small venues in Denver” and that for some, the pay isn’t worth the cost of parking downtown.
Workers learning that Live Nation had the largest CEO-to-employee pay gap of any company was a firestarter for the campaign, IATSE officials said. Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino earned 5,414 times more than his company’s median employee pay during 2022, with a $139 million pay package, according to the Institute for Policy Studies’ 29th “Executive Excess” report.
Staffing issues have also been a motivator for organizing, as workers don’t often hear about canceled shows until minutes before they’re supposed to be at work, they said. They hope that through organizing they can get an hourly minimum, something in place at the Fillmore Auditorium and standard throughout the industry, they said.
Live Nation officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A crew member from Summit and other supporters will be present at a joint union rally highlighting the importance of workers to downtown on Monday, June 17, beginning at Union Station and marching through downtown, Peterson said.
“This is a combined rally to highlight the importance of recognizing working people and their families in the much-needed revitalization of downtown, ensuring that we are in the forefront of every conversation,” Peterson told The Denver Post.
The rally will include entertainment workers, janitors, healthcare and food service workers, construction trade unions, community groups, and elected officials, he said.