The employees of the Redstone 8 Cinemas in Kimball Junction are continuing their efforts to secure a $15 an hour starting wage.
According to Redstone 8 Cinemas employee Zinnia Kenny, workers met with corporate staff of Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Theatres on Monday. KPCW previously reported that employees would go on strike Monday if they didn’t get a response to their request for a $15 an hour starting pay.
Kenny said the Monday morning meeting was held over Zoom between her and three other Redstone 8 employees and Metropolitan Theatres President David Corwin. Kenny said the 45-minute meeting was unproductive.
“We made a concise statement about what we wanted, which was a $15 wage for a better theater for Park City, we discussed what we were willing to do to get that -- which was organize and potentially strike -- and we asked them very directly for a response,” said Kenny. “They gave us, after we asked directly for a response, about 45 minutes of hollow platitudes which made no statement one way or another on what we were actually doing or asking them for.”
Kenny said a strike has been delayed until the opening of business on Wednesday unless they reach an agreement. She said a meeting later in the week would not be an acceptable compromise in order to call off the strike.
“If we cannot have a meeting and reach an agreement before the beginning of work Wednesday, then that is definitely going to result in a strike,” she said. “We set a very clear time limit when we had that last meeting and us setting that time limit was ultimately generous. We could have begun a strike on Monday, we chose not to in the spirit of continuing these talks.”
A representative for Metropolitan Theatres did not return KPCW’s request for comment.
Redstone employees are currently compensated at a starting salary of $10.50 an hour, with supervisors making $11.75.
Many local businesses have found themselves short-staffed in recent months and are offering starting wages of $15 an hour or higher in order to attract employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kenny told KPCW last week there has been significant employee turnover at the theater this summer due to low pay and more lucrative opportunities elsewhere. She said the raise would help the theater retain employees and solve the training and maintenance issues she said are negatively affecting the theater.
