Inside one labor union s fight to help workers in a struggling live entertainment industry.
By
Gabriel Granillo
5/13/2021 at 12:30am
Header image: Inside the Moda Center on May 7, the first Trail Blazers home game with fans since March 2020. Photo by Gabriel Granillo.
At last Fridayâs game against the Los Angeles Lakers, the first Trail Blazers home game at the Moda Center with a crowd, fans posed in front of the âRip Cityâ sculpture in front of the Essential Forces Fountain. They hovered over the âIâ in âCityâ while someone else captured the moment on their cellphone. Television crews aimed their cameras at the oval building, and reporters talked about the historic nature of the night. Fans came equipped with signs, flags, and an energy thatâs been lying dormant since the NBA canceled last yearâs season, an energy that perhaps pushed the Blazers to a crucial win that overtook the Lakers for sixth seed.
Dalroy Connell has worked as a stagehand for the Portland Trailblazers since 1995 when the basketball team began playing games at the Rose Garden Arena. When the pandemic hit the US in March 2020, public events were shut down and NBA games were briefly suspended before the season moved to a “bubble” in Orlando, Florida, and the season recommenced without fans in July 2020. Connell and his colleagues have been on unemployment ever since, but when.
Members of IATSE Local 28 are holding solidarity actions at Portland Trailblazer home games at the Moda Center because union crews that typically work those games have been replaced with non-union workers. The Moda Center is part of The Rose Quarter, which is owned by an affiliate of the Portland Trail Blazers and managed by Rip City Management. It also includes Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
IATSE Local 28 members have worked Blazer games since the Rose Quarter opened in 1995, and even before that when they played at Memorial Coliseum. They run sound boards, lighting, score boards, time clocks, and other technical equipment. [Other game day employees including food service workers, ticket takers, and parking attendants belong to different unions.]