After protesting in front of McArthur Court on Wednesday, a local union convinced organizers of musician Bob Dylan’s concert to drop the out-of-town stagehand staff scheduled to work the show and hire its workers instead for a higher hourly rate.
The union made a non-binding agreement with the University to set up campus shows for $17 an hour.
Live Nation, Dylan’s tour promoter, hired Portland’s Rhino Staging and Event Solutions to set up and take down the McArthur Court concert for $10 an hour — a rate that union spokesperson Jason Wells said is “below industry standards for a venue the size of McArthur Court.”
Less than four hours into the union’s protest, which began at 9 a.m., Live Nation representatives invited negotiators inside McArthur Court.
They left 30 minutes later, agreeing the union’s stagehands would take down the concert at their normal pay rate.
“I believe it was our presence that influenced Live Nation,” said the union’s business agent, Rocky Haffner, shortly after the meeting.
A similar incident occurred during Al Gore’s 2000 political campaign, at which the same protesting union was hired on the spot.
Wells said he saw the original choice of staff as ironic, considering Dylan’s persona.
“Dylan is known for music based on social justice and supporting smaller unions,” Wells said, “although I’m sure he had little influence on the decision.”
Wells said the union’s protest was not against the University or Bob Dylan, but solely the hiring practices of Live Nation.
“This is a human statement as to where we’re going as a society,” Wells said. “It’s our responsibility as a union to maintain the dignity of our union, not be reduced to migrant workers.”
Prior to dropping Rhino Staging from the job, the group’s operations manager, Del Isom, said he was impartial to the protest, which was going on synonymously with Rhino’s set-up process.
“It’s a free country,” Isom said. “They have the right to demonstrate.”
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