The staff of Outfest — the LGBTQ+ Los Angeles-based film festival — has announced plans to unionize, asking for voluntary recognition from the nonprofit’s management on Tuesday.
The organizers are seeking to include 11 staff members across the organization whose designations fall below the Associate Director level, according to organizers, with a recent card count being described as “near-unanimous” in favor of unionizing. The group is attempting to join the Communications Workers of America Local 9003.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Outfest for a comment.
Today’s announcement notes that the hopeful Outfest union, which is being pursued under the name Queer Filmworkers United, is the third LA-based film nonprofit to unionize. The Academy Foundation Workers Union and Documentary Workers United at the International Documentary Association have already successfully mounted unionization campaigns, with the latter having ratified its first contract this summer.
Queer Filmworkers United’s mission statement was forwarded to Outfest executive director Damien Navarro and the Outfest Board of Directors with a request for a response within 24 hours.
Read the statement from Queer Filmworkers United to Outfest’s board below.
Dear Damien Navarro and the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Outfest:
We, the staff of Outfest, have decided to collectively exercise our rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to organize a union, Queer Filmworkers United, in partnership with CWA Local 9003. This union will make Outfest stronger and better able to fulfill its mission to build visibility for LGBTQ+ stories and to uplift queer storytellers by empowering and protecting the Outfest staff to demand necessary improvements, build solidarity across departments, and negotiate fair and equitable working conditions for pay, benefits, and workplace culture.
To succeed in our mission to build a more just and equitable film industry, we must first build that for our organization. By guaranteeing a safe workplace with a focus on transparency, equity, and the well-being of its staff, we can be a model for the industry we seek to re-imagine, and can move forward in solidarity with a renewed clarity of purpose. We seek a say in decisions about organizational direction, priorities, staff hiring, growth, and resource allocation so that we may hold our work and all aspects of our organization accountable to our mission.
We have concluded that we need the structure and power of a union to advocate for us in a work environment where we feel unsupported. In pursuit of this, the staff of Outfest has chosen the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 9003. We are partnering to create a safe and equitable workplace and to negotiate a legally binding contract that addresses the goals we have set forth collectively:
- ● To build a culture of respect for staff wellness, including their mental health, by protecting against an exploitative work/life balance.
- ● To protect against scope creep—when staff are asked to perform work outside of that which is stated in their job description. With proper understanding of our departments’ functions and roles, we can build a more communicative, healthier, and more inspiring workplace culture, which will lead to more successful and effective programs and events.
- ● To build a culture of trust and transparency surrounding the budget that the staff needs to successfully build world-class programming and events.
- ● To ensure that seasonal staff are hired with adequate time and support so that they can successfully execute their job responsibilities, and allow year-round staff to support their work within the scope of their own job descriptions.
- ● To ensure that artists and vendors are paid within the promised window in order to uphold best practices and professionalism, support queer artists, and protect our staff and organization’s reputation in our community as reliable and trustworthy.
- ● To prioritize the mental and physical well-being of the staff and volunteers, especially during the organization’s tentpole festivals, by providing adequate meals, craft services, child care, financial access to public transportation, breaks, and time off—during and after the festival—to prevent staff burnout and undue financial burden.
- ● To ensure that all staff are treated with dignity and respect, and to protect against favoritism that occurs when scope creep grows, job duties blur, and the chain of communication and departmental structure is disrespected.
- ● To ensure that all staff, including seasonal and part-time staff, are paid a wage commensurate with the cost-of-living in Los Angeles County.
- ● To establish a work-place status quo predicated on job security, financial transparency, and a culture of respect so that the staff is not working in an atmosphere of perpetual unknowns.
- ● To build a work culture that values and budgets for the professional development of its staff.
- ● To ensure that union staff has a seat at the table in determining budget allocations, organizational direction, and an understanding thereof, so that we may avoid the perpetual “wait-and-see” approach.
We believe unionizing is the step that we need to take to make these improvements a reality. We all believe passionately in the work that we do at Outfest, its mission, and its potential to pave the way to a more just and equitable film industry and culture. But in order for Outfest to prosper in an uncertain present and future, its working conditions and environment must radically improve. We take this step to continue to fight for Outfest’s mission, its future, its community, and its reputation as a leader in queer film.
We want Outfest to voluntarily recognize all Senior Managers, Managers, Coordinators, Assistants, Designers, Senior Programmers, Programmers, Producers, and seasonal staff of our Union. We would like a signature or response to this request within 24 hours.
In solidarity,
Queer Filmworkers
United CWA, Local 9003