International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 28 handed out food boxes March 23 to members who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The union represents more than 200 members who work behind the scenes at Keller Auditorium, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Rose Garden Arena, Memorial Coliseum, Newmark and Winningstad Theaters, and at sporting events and corporate trade shows. All of those have gone dark since the pandemic hit earlier this year.
To help members out, the union teamed up with Labor’s Community Service Agency and the Portland Police Bureau’s Sunshine Division to hand out food boxes. Fifty boxes filled with beans, pasta, tuna fish, nuts, juice and more were loaded into cars of IATSE members in the parking lot of the IBEW and United Workers Federal Credit Union in Southeast Portland.