Workers at the Tacoma Dome say Drake hasn’t done enough to speak out on their behalf about the venue’s anti-union employer

When the Canadian singer Drake tours he often knocks Donald Trump and promotes progressive values. But when the record-breaking rapper plays the Tacoma Dome in Seattle, Washington, on 1 November he will face protests from stagehands and riggers who say he has not done enough to speak out about what they claim is the venue’s anti-union employer.

Drake recently said his US tour was an opportunity to bring the values of his home town, Toronto, to a wider audience. “I’m forever grateful, everywhere I go, I carry the values of this city with me,” he said. “Every night that I go and do a show in America, I tell them, ‘This is how the world is supposed to work,’” he told a crowd in Toronto in August.

Members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) have written to Drake asking him to share those values by speaking out against the anti-union activities of the organizers of his Tacoma Concert on 1 November.

“What we are asking you to do is to share ‘the values of our city’ on the stage and in a letter to Rhino Staging Northwest, Live Nation, and the Tacoma Dome,” wrote Toronto-based IATSE Local 58 business agent Nelson Robinson in a letter to Drake. “We urge you to let [the crowd] know that you support the people, who work backstage, that they have a right to a union contract, better safety, and health insurance”.

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Seventy workers employed by Rhino Staging Northwest successfully voted to unionize with IATSE Local 15 in 2015, but so far the company has resisted signing a contract with the union.

In January, Seattle implemented a $15-an-hour minimum wage law, however, some stagehands employed working at publicly owned stadiums like the Tacoma Dome, said they made as little as $12 an hour. Union organizers say that Rhino gets around Seattle’s minimum wage law by paying the workers as independent contractors for a day’s work instead of as hourly workers.

“We have people living out of cars. That’s how little they are making,” said veteran rigger Kyle Daley.

Workers also said Rhino requires workers to be on call at all times in case they are needed; thus making it difficult for them to seek extra outside work.

“They want a constant on-demand labor supply that is compliant and subservient,” said the IATSE vice-president Dan Di Tolla.

In an email to the Guardian Jeff Giek, CEO of Rhino, called the allegations “absolutely false and ridiculous”.

Since Rhino stagehands and riggers voted successfully to unionize in 2015 Rhino has refused to draw up a contract with the union, according to workers. The National Labor Relations Board told Rhino to begin discussions to bargain a contract in 2016. However, IATSE says that Rhino has so far simply gone through the motions.

Stagehand and rigging work was once a heavily unionized profession. Over the last two decades, union organizers say that standards in the stagehand profession have decreased as more concert promotors move away from using traditionally unionized concert halls and have instead switched to the non-union amphitheaters.

Worse, union organizers say that superstars like Drake have often remained silent about working conditions. Drake has yet to respond to the IATSE letter.

Di Tolla said that while some artists have met with them only after facing the risk of protest, very few have gone out of their way to advocate on behalf of the people building their sets.

Di Tolla said only one major recording artist has ever reached out unsolicited to help them in a labor struggle: Prince.

“Prince comes from Minneapolis. We have a strong local union in Minneapolis,” said Di Tolla. “Prince grew up in his career interacting with our local in his home town and he was conscious of who the people are that are hanging his lighting systems, hanging his audio system and building his stages.”

Now, workers in Seattle are hoping that Drake can follow Prince’s example and speak out on their behalf.

“It makes me feel really exploited,” said Daley. “We work really hard to make sure that their shows go off without a hitch and operate very safely and they, in turn, have quite a bit of clout to set the standard.”