Locked-Out Projectionists Urge Boycott of Loews

Tonight, for the fourth straight weekend, visitors to the Loews Harvard Square movie theater will be greeted by about a dozen protesting projectionists as well as summer blockbusters, as a bitter dispute between Loews and its workers shows no signs of ending.

Disgruntled members of the International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE)—a projectionist union with 26 local members—are asking customers to boycott five local Loews theaters, which they said has unfairly locked union members out of their jobs since June 11.

The other theaters are Fresh Pond, Copley Square, Assembly Square and Liberty Tree Mall.

For over a year, the projectionists have been unsuccessfully trying to obtain new contracts from Loews, according to IATSE lawyer Ira Sills.

The union is willing to agree to continue the terms of their old contract, he said. But Loews wants to cut work hours.

Loews spokesperson John McCauley said that new projection technology—though not yet installed in local Loews theaters—will allow projectionists to do their jobs in less time.

“We have to think ahead,” McCauley said. “Across all industries, advances are being made and we’re hoping we can evolve as well.”

The conflict came to a head on June 11, when union members showed up for another round at the bargaining table, only to find that Loews had declared negotiations at an impasse and decided to lock out the union members and have theater managers run the projectors.

Sills said the boycott is a reaction to this lockout, for which the union may be able to sue Loews.

By law, Sills said, a company must maintain the rules of its old contract during negotiations for a new one, so it is illegal to declare negotiations at an impasse arbitrarily and prevent employees from working.

So far, the boycott has not hurt business at Loews Harvard Square, as managers remain unconcerned about the protests.

“I have no idea what’s going on,” said manager Gage Jiles.

Workers said the small size of the union has made organizing a boycott difficult.

“We’ve just started with word of mouth, but we’re trying to step it up,” said union member Seth Brodeur.

The union has enlisted the help of Cambridge City Councillor Marjorie C. Decker, who denounced Loews’ actions “unconscionable” and joined in one of their Friday night protests in the Square. Decker has also successfully moved to have the City Council investigate the legality of the lockout.

The June 17 orders officially put the Council “on record [as] opposing the decision of Loews management to lock out union projectionists.”

Brodeur said the union will press ahead with its boycott in spite of the fact that projectionist unions across the country have had little success in similar contract disputes.

“Bigger and stronger [unions] have gone through the same thing, and were hard hit,” he said.

He described Loews’ action as part of a larger pattern affecting movie theaters nationwide.

“They are trying to replace trained projectionist professionals with people who have a minimum know-how in running film,” he said. “We’ve heard that films are being shown where the print is scratched, where they had to issue refunds because film was damaged.”

—Staff writer Eugenia B. Schraa can be reached at schraa@fas.harvard.edu.