It’s been a great year for independent movie theaters in Seattle. But not for the workers in the SIFF Cinema Workers Union (SCWU). For the majority of 2026, they’ve been operating without a contract and bargaining has been slow going. Now, they say it’s been brought to a standstill. On top of that, SCWU claims management has retaliated against a union member, a charge SIFF disputes.  SCWU has filed an unfair labor practice (ULP) with the National Labor Relations Board—their second this year—over these issues and say they are now “actively discussing next steps.”  In a statement, the union said SIFF “unilaterally suspended the bargaining process” and “no progress has been made since the summer.” Back then, members expressed cautious optimism that SIFF was bargaining fairly after union members walked out before sold-out 70mm screenings of The Odyssey at SIFF Cinema Downtown. After providing management with a proposal in late August on the remaining issues in their contract and giving SIFF “extra time” to return to the union with a counterproposal, SIFF hasn’t been forthcoming at the subsequent meetings. They now say that SIFF abruptly canceled a meeting scheduled earlier last month “hours before it was meant to start” and haven’t scheduled any additional bargaining meetings since.    In response to a request for a comment and questions about the current state of contract negotiations, a spokesperson for SIFF said “there are next steps in the process but that is a conversation between the SCWU and SIFF, so we have no further comment at this time.” Previously, the organization said that it was “committed to good faith bargaining,” pointing to the number of bargaining sessions they’d taken part in (21 as of August) over the past several months as a demonstration of this commitment.  In regards to the ULP, the spokesperson said “SIFF welcomes the NLRB review of the ULP complaint as we are confident that they will find it baseless.” Asked where this confidence comes from and if they were similarly confident about the first ULP, which the NLRB has yet to rule on, the spokesperson declined to comment. The union alleges that, in addition to outstanding concerns around transparency and what they say is “SIFF’s outright refusal to respond to a request for information regarding budgetary data,” management has retaliated against a member of union leadership. “They gave this individual a ‘final warning’ within one disciplinary meeting, which violates the disciplinary rules set up in the contract,” Nico Hall, a SCWU member and member of the bargaining team, says. “The contract requires SIFF to gradually move an employee up several stages of discipline. Instead, SIFF has skipped through this process and placed this employee’s livelihood at risk.” In response to the specific allegation of retaliation, a spokesperson for SIFF said they don’t “comment on any personnel matters,” but said that the organization “follows all internal processes as delineated in our employee handbook as well as the processes laid out in the agreement with the Union” and that “SIFF has not taken retaliatory action against any employee.” Previously, the union has stopped short of calling for a boycott of SIFF or any of their theaters, which include SIFF Cinema Downtown, the SIFF Cinema Uptown, and SIFF Film Center. So far, they still aren’t calling for a boycott, but they won’t stop anyone who feels like boycotting. “If SIFF customers feel motivated to boycott SIFF in response to their egregious mishandling of the bargaining process, SCWU would appreciate that support, especially if said customers send a message to SIFF warning them that their actions are losing business for the organization,” SCWU said in a statement.  The post SIFF Cinema Workers Union Say Management Has ‘Unilaterally Suspended’ Bargaining appeared first on The Stranger. ...read more read less