By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The Admiral Theater is open today, according to its owner and management, despite picketing outside.

We went to the theater this morning after a media advisory from City Councilmember Kshama Sawant‘s office announcing what was on flyers posted around the area (thanks to everyone who sent us photos of those late last night and this morning) – a “rally and strike” alleging that an Admiral Theater staffer had been fired for trying to organize a union and that there were problematic working conditions, plus making demands including a $25 hourly wage.

Sawant herself wasn’t there but a community organizer from her office, Adam Ziemkowski, who said he also is with Workers Strike Back (founded by Sawant), emceed the rally and a news conference for us and the other media crew that showed up. The former worker spoke, as did two men who identified themselves as current workers, and other local labor activists.

First, some background: The Admiral Theater is owned by a Bainbridge Island-based company called Far Away Entertainment, which also owns five other small theaters around the region. At the Admiral, they own the business, but not the city-landmark building, though Far Away led the renovations that converted it into a first-run moviehouse in 2016-2017.

At this morning’s event, we spoke with Kylie (above center), the former manager who was fired; one of the demands is that she be reinstated. She said she had worked for the Admiral for a year and told us her firing earlier this month followed two days in which she had sent messages to management calling out problems. She says she was being “asked to break labor laws” and that the small staff was so overworked they weren’t getting breaks. We checked state systems but couldn’t find any past complaints on record; Kylie said an unfair labor practice claim would be filed today.

We also talked to current employee Matt, who said he has been working for the theater for about six weeks. He’s a West Seattleite and says he “really appreciates what the theater means to the community” and that’s why he wants to see improved working conditions, Besides the demand for a higher wage, he expressed concerns about pest problems in the building, rodents and termites, noting that he had four years of experience in the pest-control business. He said his advice to company management for dealing with the pest problems was disregarded.

Here’s what they and a third worker, plus the event organizer, said at the news conference:

After returning to our HQ, we spoke with Far Away Entertainment owner Jeff Brein by phone. First, he said, since there’s no union, “there’s no strike” – the picketing is “a protest.” He says the protest “took us by surprise” because a proposal to organize a union had not been brought to him or upper management, and they of course would be open to talking about it. “I’m not anti-union, I’d be happy to sit down and talk.” He said Kylie was fired “for what we believe to be just cause.” As for a $25 hourly wage, he says what his company pays is “a fair, workable wage … at or exceeding what Regal and AMC [corporate theater chains] pay.” Business at the Admiral still hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, Brein says. “We’re slowly growing back.”

He denies all the other allegations, including that labor laws were broken. “We’re fully compliant with every workplace regulation and have never had a complaint.” He also says they have regular pest-control visits and that the recent sighting of apparent termites was addressed promptly. Mold? He’s not aware of that, though acknowledges some water trouble from a roof leak had to be dealt with, but he says the building is safe. (We checked the city code-compliance files, and no complaints were on record there since one about trash in the alley last year, ultimately ruled unfounded.)

Most of all, Brein said, he’s puzzled that a city councilmember would lash out at his business without attempting to contact him first, but he says he’s never heard from Sawant or her staff.

So what happens now? The picketers say they’ll be there all weekend. (Checking the view of the sidewalk outside the Admiral via the nearest live traffic cam, it appears at least one person is there handing flyers to passersby.) Former manager Kylie says their request for the community is, “Don’t go to the movies right now.” Owner Brein says his message is, “The Admiral is open,” and wants to stay that way: “It’s disheartening to be subjected to this harassment.” Meantime, we’ll watch for the formal filings in the unionization matter.