Pabst Theater Union Gets Big Wage Hikes

Justin Otto, Pabst Theater Group employee and union organizer, speaks at press conference outside The Riverside Theater. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

The union representing Pabst Theater Group employees has just won significant wage increases.

The Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization (MASH) announced Monday morning that PTG employees working in the box office, hospitality and as event staff had ratified a three-year contract that includes new wage increases.

“When workers organize and build strong unions like the PTG workers, workers win,” said MASH President Peter Rickman. “We can transform the hospitality industry and our city as more workers follow the lead of the PTG workers organizing unions and winning great collective bargaining agreements.”

The union represents workers at all of PTG’s venues including the Pabst Theater, The Riverside Theater, the Miller High Life Theatre, the Turner Hall Ballroom, Vivarium and The Fitzgerald. The union won a national labor relations board election in June 2022 with a strong majority of workers supporting the union.

The union and PTG bargained their first contract in 2022. The new agreement announced Monday includes across-the-board hourly wage increases of $3.75 with annual $1.25 increases over the life of the contract. The contract also secured additional pay for workers that have been with the company for a long time

“Our new union contract secures the substantial pay increases and future raises that workers like us need and deserve,” Zak Heebsh, Event Staff, is quoted in MASH’s statement.

Lulu Sanchez, who was an early organizer of the union and a box office employee, said the new contract creates “security and stability” for the workers. Julia Derby, who works in hospitality, said it builds on the success of the union’s first contract and raises standards for service and hospitality employment in Milwaukee.

PTG employees won their union through a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election in June 2022. Their initial demand for recognition was rebuffed and management pushed back against the union in the run up to the election, arguing a labor contract could be limiting and not in their favor as individuals. But 94% of the workers voted to join the union

“The Pabst Theater Group has a longstanding history of productive relationships with labor unions such as IATSE and the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization (MASH),” the theater group said in a statement. “As expected, the recent ratification of the updated CBA with MASH proceeded smoothly and we look forward to continuing the business of working to bring world class entertainment to the city of Milwaukee.”

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