KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On Tuesday, July 7, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 31 held an election for Worlds of Fun Theme Park entertainment unit workers who were looking to unionize with IATSE Local 31.
An organizing effort over a year in the making, ended in landslide victory for the entertainment unit with 21 yes votes and one no vote. With 34 employees making up the Worlds of Fun entertainment unit the results, which were collected and available at 4 p.m. on July 7 included 27 votes of 37 total voters, with at least five marked as contested votes if the worker was a new employee or if they currently were involved in an unfair labor practice dispute for wrongful termination.
IATSE Local 31 Business Agent Jacob Hobbs shared that any contested votes will have to complete a clerical process, but the union is prepared to accept these contests.
“It’s a difficult situation, not allowing someone to have a voice; one employee’s situation is different from another,” he said in an interview.
Those eligible to vote in the July 7 election included any entertainment unit worker who is currently employed by Worlds of Fun or who had signed a timecard during the payroll period. Supervisors were not qualified to cast their votes in this election.
A Race to the Finish Line
While the entertainment unit casted their votes on July 7, this unionization campaign began over a year ago with a Worlds of Fun entertainment manager reaching out to IATSE International, looking to organize and receive representation from IATSE.
After speaking with the international union, Hobbs shared that while in his 15 years with the union he had not participated in a bottom-up organizing campaign, IATSE Local 31 got to work in assisting the Worlds of Fun entertainment unit.
“When I came into this position, I didn’t know anything about how to do it; six months into my three-year term, I chose to go to the IATSE Officer Institute, I learned what it means to be a union,” Hobbs said in an interview.
While Hobbs and IATSE Local 31 were able to hit the ground running initially, working with the Worlds of Fun entertainment division supervisors to create spreadsheets and call lists, among other organizational elements, Hobbs shared that the stagehands originally struggled to get a ruling due to a series of government shut downs in fall 2025 — leaving the hearing stipulation on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 14’s desk for months.
In January, IATSE Local 31 received feedback from the NLRB, which approved its stipulation and allowed the union to obtain a voter list and begin to schedule an election date — originally planned for early June.
However, these agreements were completed under Worlds of Fun’s former ownership, Six Flags Entertainment Corporation. When the company sold Worlds of Fun to EPR Properties — a Kansas City, Mo.-based real estate investment company, which focuses on experimental properties, according to its website — in March, operating under Enchanted Parks management, it required IATSE Local 31 and the Worlds of Fun entertainment unit to restart its campaign from the ground up.
In May, Hobbs shared that they rebooted the petition process and in six days, IATSE Local 31 had 28 of its 34 total cards signed.
“The new management wanted to throw the unit away,” Hobbs said in an interview. “The unit started making buttons that said ‘Recognize Entertainment.’ They put them on backpacks and purses; it turned into a union election on July 7.”
A few reasons why the entertainment unit pushed to unionize and join IATSE Local 31, Hobbs shared includes current working conditions and wages — such as a lack of specific heat requirement for entertainers to cease operation, beyond if the entire park is shut down, as well as a wage threshold, which has its entertainers capped at $15 to $17.50 an hour, with no minimum wage increases.
As many of the entertainment workers are seasonal, Hobbs shared that in addition to not receiving benefits including healthcare or retirement, the employees are not guaranteed job retention from season to season.
Though throughout this election process, IATSE Local 31 feels the most important step was getting to a place for the entertainment unit to cast their votes and to have a seat at the table.
“Proving that the layoff of part-time seasonal workers was not going to work at busting the unit at the park and together; we were stronger after being told no by the park,” Hobbs said in an interview. “Just the tenacity and preservation of this unit is something anyone could take away; as a first timer doing this, if I was to tell another first timer, the goal is to get to a vote, not to win every battle; the unit doesn’t have to win everything, everyone just needs to get to the table to start.”
Julia Williams — a Kansas City native — is a reporter and digital producer for The Labor Beacon. A University of Missouri School of Journalism alumna, she previously served as the editor-in-chief of The Northeast News before joining The Labor Beacon staff.
Williams’s grandfather was a Claycomo Ford Motor Company retiree and avid UAW Local 249 supporter, allowing her to understand the union difference from a young age.
In her free time, Williams enjoys spending time with her family, traveling to see her friends and hanging out at home with her cat, Greta. She loves a good cup of coffee, seeing local, live music and shopping secondhand. With a passion for storytelling, she hopes to bring her knowledge of journalistic integrity to the Kansas City union community — giving union and labor workers a voice, while holding people in powerful positions accountable.
