The Coolidge Corner Theatre Union held a rally Wednesday night to demand improved wages and working conditions as contract negotiations with theater management persist.
Around 30 demonstrators, some members of the union, held signs and chanted by the theater entrance, hours before actor Ethan Hawke received the 2025 Coolidge Award there.
Speakers discussed ongoing contract negotiations, but they all reiterated the staff’s love for the theater and hope to be able to continue to work there.
“We’re losing our third spaces in society,” said Cheyenne Harvey, a projectionist at the theater for six years. “Our job means a lot more than just checking people in and getting people to their seats. It’s being a part of the experience of sharing a story with this community.”
The rally follows headway in negotiations between the union and theater, with management announcing short-term raises of $1 and $1.50 an hour for floor staff and projectionists, respectively. The rally was planned before the interim raises were announced, but union member Ginny Hamlin said the development motivated them to come out Wednesday.
“That gave us a second wind,” said Hamlin, 29, who has been a floor staff supervisor for seven years. “We love that what we’re doing is having an impact, or starting to have an impact, and I think, if anything, it just added more fuel to the fire for us.”
Speakers discussed the union’s demands. While higher wages are at the top of the list, other issues include sick leave, paid time off and staff shortages.
The Coolidge Corner Theatre voluntarily recognized the union, said Deputy Director Beth Gilligan. She added the Coolidge is one of the highest-paying cinemas in the nation.
“If anyone wants to patronize any other cinema in the area, those employees are going to be earning less than Coolidge employees are,” Gilligan said. “With these further wage increases, that moves the needle even further, and I think that shows our commitment to our staff.”
Gilligan said she hopes the parties can reach an agreement. “We all want what’s best for the Coolidge,” she said.
Oliver Bryan, a Coolidge employee of two years and one of the union’s founding members, said during the rally that in the year and a half since the union was formed, its “members are still struggling.”
While employees earn tips, Bryan said, these tips should not compensate for wages.
“The theater has made it very clear that they think that that should stand in place of us being paid more, but it is not [patrons’] job to pay us a living wage,” Bryan said. “It’s the theater’s job to do that, and they are not doing that.”
Adam Conway, a substitute on the floor staff who has worked at the theater for seven years, said he believes the short staffing is a means by the theater to weaken the union and further drag out negotiations.
“I believe it’s because, through attrition and through people leaving, they are trying to drain the lifeblood out of our union, trying to drain our bargaining committee, trying to keep us at [bay] so that our union is weak, and we can’t fight for what we deserve,” Conway said.
Erica Hill, 36, a projectionist who has worked at the Coolidge for 16 years, is referred to by fellow staff as the “mayor of the Coolidge.” Hill said theater staff were not kept in the loop when the theater underwent its $14 million expansion.
Hill said there was no training or new equipment testing before the expansion opened to the public.
“I’ve wanted open communication since I started working here,” Hill said. “When the expansion happened, it just feels like we didn’t get any say or [were] consulted at all.”
Rally speakers promoted the union’s “Drop the Donation” campaign, which urges supporters to wait to renew memberships and to opt out of donations to the theater, including the $1.50 “preservation donation” applied to tickets purchased in-person, until the end of the year or when a contract is signed. The union suggests donating instead to the Brookline Food Pantry or Food not Bombs in light of recent SNAP benefit uncertainty.
Bob Miller, a 71-year-old retired educator who participated in the rally, is still involved with the Brookline Educators Union and Massachusetts Teachers Association, which informed his motivation to stand with the theater union Wednesday night. During the demonstration, Miller proposed that the union ask supporters to pledge donations to the theater in exchange for getting a contract signed.
He said he believes the contingent donations would receive wide support, as the community has united to save the Coolidge before .
“This community has shown that they’re willing to support this theater, and the theater almost went away 20, 30 years ago” Miller said. “The community rallied around to say, ‘No, we want to keep this theater,’ and now it’s obviously doing well … but that success has to be shared with the people who work here.”
This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.