IATSE Local 2 announced Saturday, July 2nd, that it resolved its dispute over the Dave Matthews Band Caravan Festival Tour promoted by Jam Productions and Live Nation. They had been picketing the event due to the refusal of the employer to engage employees represented by the Local and to adhere to an existing contract. Rather than deal with the IATSE the company brought non-union out of town workers to begin the load-in. Chicago based IA Locals 476, 750 and 769 picketed with Local 2 over two days at the jobsite known as Lakeside. Other unions, including the IBEW and the IBT, were also involved in protecting their area standards.

The stalemate was broken when Coran Capshaw from the Dave Matthews Band reached out to International Vice President and Local 2 Business Manager Craig Carlson in an attempt to work past this blatant attempt to undermine the Union’s area standards. The DMB has previously used Local 2 members for over a dozen years in staging its Chicago concerts and all of the DMB 2011 Caravan Festival Tour stops have been handled by IA Locals. Said Carlson, “Chicago can be proud of its solidarity and Local 2 is most appreciative of the good-faith that the DMB and Coran Capshaw brought to the situation.”

IATSE International President Loeb added, “Local 2 did what they had to in order to focus the event’s attention on fairness. We aren’t going to allow a rogue manager to undermine standards established over decades and Local 2 had the full support of the IA in this fight.”