TUCSON, AZ – Loft Cinema workers in Tucson, AZ have voted 18–0 to ratify their first collective bargaining agreement with IATSE Local 415, the union announced Tuesday. The unanimously approved union contract covers 20 workers across floor staff, projectionists, purchasing, event, and operations positions at one of the city’s most beloved cultural institutions.
Opening in 1965, The Loft Cinema is a nonprofit arthouse cinema and cornerstone of Tucson’s film community, now operating five screens at a newly renovated facility. The venue has a historic connection to the IATSE. Local 415 represented Loft projectionists for at least three years in the early days of the theater’s operation, before representation lapsed around a management change in the early 1970s. More than five decades later, Loft workers have brought that relationship back to life.
The contract is the culmination of an 18-month process that began in February 2025, when Loft workers first reached out to Local 415. On June 16, 2026, employees voted unanimously to be represented by Local 415 in an NLRB election. Bargaining began shortly after and concluded in late August.
The agreement delivers significant gains for the crew, including wage increases, expanded paid time off, paid breaks, daily overtime, overtime pay for work on holidays, weekly hours guarantees, and limitations on management use of video surveillance of employees.
“We’re very proud of the hard work of the Loft employees during their campaign to unionize and their persistence in bargaining this agreement,” said IATSE Local 415 Business Agent Ian Fritz. “Our union is honored to represent them, and I hope their success sends a message to movie theater workers across Tucson that joining a union is every worker’s right.”
Crewmember Victor Bostick put the contract in historical context: “One of the motivational forces behind Loft staff unionization was the fact that union projectionists at the Loft in the 1960s were paid $30 per hour in inflation-adjusted dollars, and somehow that same skill has been reduced to a near-minimum wage position in the modern day. With the expansion and growth of the theater, it only makes sense that the workers reap higher wages and also benefit from that success. We are thrilled to be a collective unit and we stand in solidarity with the Tucson community.”
Another worker reflected on what the victory means more broadly: “What this victory signifies to me is that, at least for a local institution like The Loft, the hard work that we provide as service workers is getting the respect that has been long overdue. All labor is skilled and essential.”
Theatre workers looking to join together to win better workplaces can head to iatse.net/join to contact an IATSE organizer.
