The Cineplex Odeon Corporation and Local 110 of the Motion Picture Projectionists and Video Technicians Union have faced off in a battle that could radically change the way Chicago movie theaters operate while testing the resolve of one of the city’s most entrenched and best-paid unions.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The lockout came as Cineplex Odeon and union executives were discussing a new three-year contract meant to replace a five-year contract that expired on September 1. “We were trying to negotiate with them and out of the blue they locked us out,” says an angry Al Brenkus, secretary-treasurer of Local 110. He believes the company is out to bust the union; Lichtman denies any such motive.
Another key matter in the dispute is money. Local 110 members are perhaps the best-paid projectionists in the country, the result of highly complex contracts ranging back over the union’s 46-year history. Brenkus says, “It’s taken us a long time to get where we are now.” Sources close to the local movie-exhibition business indicate that the union received favorable contracts in the past because the former Plitt Theatres chain hoped to limit competition in Chicago by making it an expensive area in which to do business.
Cineplex Odeon says its attempts to lower local projection-booth costs are merely a long overdue move to bring them in line with other theaters around the country. But some local movie-exhibition sources believe the battle with the union was precipitated in part by lackluster box-office grosses at many of the chain’s Chicago-area theaters, combined with the company’s overall financial problems of recent years.
