Thousands of IATSE crew members in Hollywood have been warned they could be struck off the Industry Experience Roster, a union-administered list that determines priority hiring for freelance crew such as grips, make-up artists and plumbers. The move, disclosed by Contract Services in recent weeks, has alarmed workers because losing roster status can make it far harder to secure union jobs, particularly at a time when the number of US productions is shrinking and work is increasingly moving overseas.

The roster, run by a nonprofit established under industry collective bargaining agreements since 1965, requires members to have worked at least one day on a union project within a three-year eligibility window, in this case between April 2023 and March 2026; a few thousand IATSE members have so far been flagged for potential removal, with roughly 47,000 people across IATSE, Teamsters Local 399, LiUNA Local 724 and Plumbers Local 78 currently on the list. It is the first such removal round since 2022, having been paused during the difficult period following the writers' and actors' strikes. IATSE reports members worked around 78.9 million hours in 2025, down nearly 36% from 122.9 million in 2022, while big-budget US productions fell 37% between 2021 and 2025 according to ProdPro; affected workers can dispute their removal, and some union locals are already filing objections on their behalf.