Kendall Square Cinema Employee Union! - Boston

Landmark Theaters Name Kendall Manager World’s Best Boss

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:05:12 -0500

That’s right, Kendall Square Cinema’s very own house manager,
Howie Sandler, was named Landmark’s manager of the year.

Congratulations!

Coming soon…

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 23:36:43 -0500

Please Join Us For A

UNION SOLIDARITY MARCH

In Support Of The
Kendall Cinema Workers
Fight for a Fair Contract!

December 15, 2006
5:00 P.M. – 7:00 P.M.
at the

KENDALL SQUARE CINEMA
One Kendall Square
Cambridge, MA 02139

For Information please call the
Local 791 union office at 1-800-535-2752
United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 791

Happy Birthday Kendall Union!

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 23:52:11 -0400

One year ago the Kendall Square Cinema staff voted 17-1 to join UFCW Local 791. Today, we
still do not have a contract. However, with 65% of the staff involved in the vote still working at the Kendall, new employees taking part in the process, negotiations continuing at a regular pace, plus our new drum-beating, song-singing, BFFs at the Shattuck …we’re still going strong.

Maybe if we had reached this point without support of patrons, local activist groups and all the well wishes from you all who read this site, or maybe if another Landmark hadn’t voted to join a union, we could be dismissed as just a bunch of disgruntled
ruffians and scalawags.

That’s not the case, give or take a scalawag.

Over the past three years, three Landmarks held union elections. While we’ve all worked together, all three discussed unionizing before contacting each other. Theatres in Minneapolis, Cambridge and Berkeley are reacting to cultural shift taking place in the service industry. We don’t live in a vacuum. Look at Borders and Starbucks. Check out what Chicago is doing. And the current minimum wage increases being debated.

And to everyone else who has been asking about organizing, why not? What do you have to loose? Just a $7.00 an hour job that may or may not give you a raise, where you are an “at-will” employee who can be fired at the
drop of a hat (literally, they could fire you for dropping your hat there's nothing you can do about it).

The Brattle

Wed, 07 Dec 2005 12:42:17 -0500

The Brattle Film Foundation's Movie Watch-a-Thon fundraiser wraps up this coming Sunday, December 4. Please consider sponsoring the Chlotrudis team in its efforts to raise money for the "Preserve the Brattle Legacy" campaign .

As you all know, the Brattle Film Foundation must raise a substantial amount of money by the end of the year or face the prospect closing the doors to the Brattle Theatre.

Check out the Globe piece:

http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2005/10/16/theater_focuses_on_its_fund_raising_campaign/

Walmart, The High Cost of Low Price: FREE Screening on Tuesday!

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 01:52:38 -0500

If you can't make this screening, think about holding one of your own. Buy the film at
http://www.walmartmovie.com/

The film only cost $12.95...now that's a bargain!

FREE Screening Information:

The New film by Robert Greenwald shown as part of Higher Standards Week of Action!

Lets Keep Wal-Mart Out of Boston!

Tuesday, November 15th, 2005
6:00 PM
Boston Teachers' Union,
180 Mount Vernon St, Boston

Come out and watch the movie that Wal-Mart doesn't want you to see! Join the Boston Teachers Union, Greater Boston Labor Council, UFCW Local 1445, ACORN, Jobs with Justice, SEIU State Council, Community Labor United for the screening!

For more information contact
ACORN @ Phone: 617-436-7100 or maacorn@acorn.org mailto:
Massachusetts Jobs with Justice @ 617-524-8778 or jwj@massjwj.net

American Rights at Work Tour - October 20th

Fri, 21 Oct 2005 11:05:12 -0400

Right to Organize Teach In - 10/20
Harvard University, Sever Room 113 7:30 PM
http://www.massjwj.net/

Hear from workers and organizers:

·        Harvard Janitors demanding living wages and benefits

·        Kendall Square Theatre employees, recently unionized

·        Campaign for hotel workers justice in 2006!

·        The national campaign to unionize Verizon Wireless

How does Landmark feel about the unionization of Kendall?

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 11:19:14 -0400

This question/answer is, I hear from numerous employees, posted in the staff rooms of several Landmark's around the country. Just wanted to put it up here for the Kendall employees who didn't get the memo.

QUESTION: How does Landmark feel about the unionization of Kendall
Square?

ANSWER: The company feels that the best way to communicate and
work with our employees is directly rather than through an outside
third party. If employee's feel that there is something they want
to discuss or have an issue with they should feel free to contact their
District Manager, a member of Human Resources or Executive
Management. There is also a toll free Employee Support Hotline
that employees can call at 1-800-378-4886. Landmark Theatres has
an open door policy and welcome all employees to contact any member of
the management team directly with any questions, comments, concerns
etc.

Kendall sees red

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 17:42:34 -0400

Boston's Weekly Dig
Published August 10, 2005
by Arna Wilkinson

“Bosses beware, when we’re screwed, we multiply,” the old union battle cry goes. If so, then Landmark Theatres better keep an eye on the agitators at the Kendall Square Cinema, who, with a 17-1 vote, recently joined the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 791, making it the first Landmark Theatre in the country to be unionized.

Following the vote, Landmark talking heads and the theatre’s general manager remained tight-lipped on how the move would affect the future of the beloved art house cinema, and some employees, though “ecstatic” at the decision, remained uncertain about whether the theatre’s avant-garde image would suffer as the staff pushed for health insurance, retirement benefits and an end to the current wage freeze.

“I am not sure if ultimately this is going to be the best or the worst for the theatre,” said former Landmark city manager Brian Murray, who left the theatre in April after four-and-a-half years, due to disagreements with the company. “I am hoping the staff will get what they deserve. My fear is that bringing in the union is going to make it more of a hostile environment.”

Lauren Ryder, part of the floor staff, said morale had been decreasing since 2929 Entertainment purchased Landmark in 2003, and began showing advertising before films and pushing for digital projectors instead of 35mm film equipment, while maintaining a prolonged employee wage freeze. In May, the staff contacted Local 791, which also represents 6,200 Shaw’s Supermarket employees, after talking to Landmark staff in Minneapolis who had launched a failed bid to unionize.

“We’re just hoping the company won’t fight the contract too much, and that whatever happens, we will have the support of patrons in the community,” said Ryder.

We Won!!!

Tue, 09 Aug 2005 12:58:32 -0400
Kendall Square Cinema Votes 17 - 1 to Join UFCW Local 791

Thank you to UFCW organizers Bob "Moose" McClay and DJ Cronin for working with us from day one, and for continuing to work with us as long as it takes.

Thank you to all the UFCW members who came out to stand with us election day.

Thank you to the patrons of The Kendall Square Cinema for all your support.

Thank you to all the former employees who came out to lend their support.

Thank you to everyone in Minneapolis who shared their experiences with us.

Thank you to Labor Relations Solutions. If you also want a union in your workplace, I highly suggest their services.

I have many more "Thanks" as well as pictures from election day. They will be up later this week. Until then, please read Pete Stidman's piece below.

-Lauren Ryder
Kendall employee since January 2000
Member of the UFCW Local 791 since Saturday July 30th, 2005

Kendall Square Cinema employees join union

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 15:27:12 -0500

by Pete Stidman
http://boston.indymedia.org/feature/display/39973/index.php

After only three months of organizing at the Kendall Square Cinema, the Landmark Theatre chain's biggest theatre, employees voted 17 to one to join the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) local 791 on July 30.

“Kendall Square cinema is now 100% union,” yelled a cinema employee as movie-goers left the theatre, “wall to wall union!”

The vote comes as a result of recent management changes, lack of full-time status even for employees who average over 35 hours per week, small and sporadic raises, and a starting wage of $7.25 that hasn't changed since 2002, according to employee and organizer Lauren Ryder.
kendall.jpg
"I've worked here for two years,” said Rhyland Gillespie, “and the new employees that I'm training earn as much as I do."

The UFCW represents around 6,700 employees of the Shaw's/Star supermarket chain as well as the Excel Case Ready Beef plant in Taunton, MA.

The Kendall is their first organized theatre and it may be the only wall to wall union-organized theatre in the country. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) organizes projectionists on a wide scale, but does not organize ticket takers, concessionaires, and other movie theatre workers.

It's showtime: Movie theater workers set to vote on union

Tue, 09 Aug 2005 12:57:08 -0400
Business, Patriot Ledger
Published: July 21, 2005

CAMBRIDGE - Employees of the Kendall Square Cinema will vote next week on whether to join a union as the workers seek improved benefits and more structured wage increases.

The vote on July 30 will determine whether the 20 members of Kendall Square's floor staff become part of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 791, a chapter representing more than 6,000 workers in Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island.

The Kendall Square Cinema opened in Cambridge in September 1995 and quickly became one of the most popular art-house theaters in the country. It is owned by Landmark Theatres, a Los Angeles-based chain focused on art-house and foreign films. The company couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.

If the union vote is successful, it will lead to the first union at any Landmark theater.

The floor staff are responsible for selling tickets and working the concessions, as well as cleaning the nine-screen theater. Starting wages have remained at $7.25 an hour since 2002, and few staffers are employed full-time.

The floor staff do not receive vacation pay or sick days, and are paid only time-and-a-half on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, said Lauren Ryder, a 30-year-old Somerville resident who has worked at the theater for five and a half years. They also did not receive promised wage increases in January, she said.

CINEMA WORKERS FILE FOR UNION ELECTION WITH UFCW LOCAL 791

Tue, 09 Aug 2005 12:57:32 -0400
Workers Battle Billionaire "Benefactor"

On July 30th, 2005, the floor staff of Landmark's Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge, MA will vote to
become part of UFCW Local 791. If successful, this will be the first unionized theatre staff in the Landmark Theatre Chain and possibly, the country.

The decision to petition for union representation came as a result of recent management changes, a wage freeze and general lack of benefits for employees. Landmark does not offer full time status to most of its regular local employees, some of whom work, on average, between thirty-five and forty hours per week. The starting wage has remained at $7.25 per hour since the fall of 2002 at the Kendall Square location. Since that time, merit raises and reviews have been sporadic at best. Many of these employees work multiple jobs to make ends meet and rely on state-funded healthcare programs.

"I've worked here for two years, and the new employees that I'm training earn as much as I do," says employee Rhyland Gillespie. While the increase they hope to attain is small by most standards, even a minimal raise would have a large impact on those who work here.

"Without the opportunity for higher wages, as long as I work here I will not be able to escape living paycheck to paycheck", employee David Greene states. "People work at this theatre because they support independent films. It is disturbing that complaints about recent operational changes by not only the staff, but loyal patrons, have been met with apathy, bordering on contempt by upper management," explains former, longtime assistant manager Nancy Campbell. "There is a growing disparity between the original mission statement of the company and the behavior it