Hello! We are a group of concerned Corporate AV/ Trade show technicians in Western Washington (primarily in the Greater Seattle area.) This is a space for Washington State AV Technicians affected by recent Encore dispatch changes to add their name and share their story. The purpose is to form a clear picture of how this change is affecting AV techs in the industry and to see what can be done to help.

Recently, Encore Global in the area has moved to exclusively using overhire labor from the IATSE Local 15 Union. This has resulted in multiple Corporate AV and Tradeshow W2 employers being almost entirely driven out of the Seattle Corporate AV/ Tradeshow space overnight. This has also subsequently led to an increase in out of state 1099 companies expanding their hold on the Corporate AV/ Tradeshow work in the area, where they were previously bottlenecked by a lack of labor: A large influx of experienced AV Technicians, who have lost their primary employment and previously would choose not to work 1099 jobs, have entered their labor pool.

Many AV Techs in the area have been directly impacted by this change in some way: Immediate loss of W2 work compared to previous years, dealing with the growing pains of the dispatch changes between Encore and Local 15, expanding work with out of state 1099 companies, etc.

If you are a Washington State AV Technician that has been impacted in some way by this change, please sign your name and remember to leave a comment in the "reason for signing" section about your specific experiences: How has this Encore Global overhire dispatch change affected your work, career, finances, livelihood, etc.? This will allow us to show the real impacts that this decision has had on Washington State AV Technicians to a larger audience, as well as give Corporate AV/ Tradeshow Techs an opportunity to directly speak up and have their stories told.