The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has notified thousands of its members that they face removal from the Industry Experience Roster, the nonprofit-administered list that governs hiring priority for freelance crew on the West Coast. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this is the first roster removal since 2022.
The Roster, established under collective bargaining agreements in 1965, tracks freelance workers from grips and makeup artists to plumbers, with roughly 47,000 total members across IATSE and several allied unions. Eligibility requires at least one day of union work within a three-year window. The current review covers April 1, 2023, through March 31, 2026. Members who did not meet that threshold have been flagged. To requalify after removal, many classifications require 30 days of work on eligible productions within one year.
The numbers behind the removals are stark. IATSE members worked 78.9 million hours in 2025, down 36 percent from 122.9 million hours in 2022. Domestic live-action scripted production starts declined 37 percent between 2021 and 2025. IATSE International VP Mike Miller framed the removals as a structural consequence of the industry shifting production outside traditional union markets. "Because of these location decisions, employers are now using the lack of work to purge their rosters of eligible workers," Miller said.
Flagged IATSE members are joined by workers from Teamsters Local 399, LiUNA Local 724, and the United Association of Plumbers Local 78, though those unions have yet to receive formal removal notices. The consolidation of production in right-to-work states and overseas locations has gradually redistributed the industry away from the West Coast infrastructure this roster was built to protect.
