IATSE Local 412 will celebrate with a cake at Fogartyville this Labor Day.
By Ramon Lopez
Original Air Date: August 29, 2025
Host: Did you know? A Sarasota union local just turned 100. The stagehand union got started in the days of John Ringling, and its first members were movie theater operators. Today, it’s all about live performances, music and drama, and the stagehands will be celebrating their first 100 years with a cake this Labor Day. Ramon Lopez has more on that.
[Opera singing, piano accompaniment]
Ramon Lopez: The next time you relish a performance at the Sarasota Opera House, think about the colorful set, the superb acoustics and the lavish costumes that transport you to Tuscany and beyond.
Stagehand today
The props, the perfect pitch and the outfits are provided by The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Union.
IATSE, for short, supports the Sarasota Opera, the Sarasota Ballet, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, plus other area orchestras and regional theatres.
IATSE was founded in 1893 when representatives of stagehands met in New York to establish fair wages and working conditions.
Stagehands 70 years ago
More than 168,000 union members nationwide work in all forms of live theater, motion picture and television production, trade shows, exhibitions, television and concerts, as well as the equipment and construction shops that support all these areas of the entertainment industry.
Within the United States and Canada, there are more than 360 local shops organized by geographic region and craft industries.
Locals negotiate labor contracts regarding wages, work rules and grievance procedures. Some administer health & retirement funds and provide training & education.
Local 412 covers the Florida counties of Sarasota, Manatee, Harding and DeSoto. Business Agent Roy Sorenson says the union rank-and-file provides much more.
Roy Sorenson: We’re the technicians behind entertainment. That’s who we are. We call ourselves the union behind entertainment. We’re the ones that provide the technical expertise to do productions in theater, film, television, convention work, arenas.
RL: This year, Local 412’s 130 card-carrying members are celebrating the union shop’s 100th anniversary.
RS: In 1925, when this charter was given from IATSE, everyone was a motion picture machine operator. There were no stagehands at that time in Sarasota, and that lasted for a good 40, 45 years. That would be whatever film—motion picture machine operators. In the early 70s, the Asolo theatre company and the Van Wezel started using union stagehands.
RL: IATSE members for the most part work incognito.
RS: We’re behind the scenes. Most of the folks that work with us are not actors and are not famous. Our job is to support them.
Tino Wallenda
RL: But there is one celebrity with the IATSE local: Tino Wallenda, president of the local for more than two decades and a prominent member of the famous circus family. His nephew is Nik Wallenda, best known as the first person to walk a tightrope stretched directly over Niagara Falls.
Sorenson will be at the Fogartyville Community Media and Arts Center on September 1, where a local labor alliance will celebrate Local 412’s 100th anniversary and Labor Day. The luncheon is hosted by the Coalition of Manasota Unions, a committee of the West Central Florida Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
Meet union members from diverse industries, including the American Federation of Musicians Local 427-721, United Faculty of Florida, the Amalgamated Transit Union and the Communication Workers of America.
A violin duo will perform a range of music, including light classical.
This event, which starts at 11:00 a.m., is free, open to the public and family friendly, but you must RSVP via mobilize.us/s/GKBSig/p or mobilize.us/flaflcio/event/818541.
This is Ramon Lopez for WSLR News.
WSLR News aims to keep the local community informed with our 1/2 hour local news show, quarterly newspaper and social media feeds. The local news broadcast airs on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6pm.