[Traducción al Español en la próxima página]
Adrian Hernandez is the Vice President of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 614 . He describes the union’s focus on being anything that involves a stage. This makes the Inland Empire a particularly dynamic place to work in because we have the National Orange Show (NOS) center that hosts multiple popular raves, including ESCAPE and Nocturnal Wonderland. Before the NOS center, there would be raves on G Street Adrian would help set up sound for. He was able to enter the backyard punk scene in the Inland Empire, helping him turn this into a career.
Locally, IATSE is not as well known as other unions are. This is because many work in the background of major performances, which tend to overshadow their labor. Adrian’s hope is to encourage more locals to join the workforce,
“We’re actually working on, right now, an education program, a bridge program from our local community colleges and a training program to accept new apprentices and to build a workforce.”
Many are attracted to entertainment work because they want to be a part of the productions that they’re fans of. What they don’t realize is that the work is extremely difficult. Entertainment workers have to carry heavy materials, often in the blazing heat, in order to build a stage. Getting more workers specialized in the entertainment industry is important to keeping it alive. IATSE 614 often collaborates with IATSE 122 to help get their work done,
“We’re really close to Local 122…they are the ones that have the desert area jurisdiction and there’s a little bit of overlap and because we’re such small groups of people, it’s the same groups of people traveling back and forth… we’ve been trying to work together and make it cohesive.”
Hernandez takes on many roles in the union. He is a worker, Vice President of Local 614, and is involved with the labor council. He reflects that all this work, truly, is a labor of love,
“There’s no money here. There’s no incentive of monetary gain. So, it’s absolutely because the union was there for me!”
