AEW's 2300 Arena Debut Met With Union Protests Over Underpaid Labor (AEW News)

AEW started a 7 show residency at the 2300 Arena (the old ECW Arena) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with Wednesday's episode of flagship show Dynamite, but there's a bit of political tension underpinning the deal.

The Philadelphia chapter of The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) plans to protest the residency, because they argue that AEW events in Philadelphia "are failing to meet area standards by paying substandard wages and benefits". In the same post on social media, IATSE continued: "When employers undercut these standards it threatens wages, benefits, and job opportunities for all entertainment workers in the community".

On their Facebook page, the group elaborated to state that they're chiefly concerned about stagehands. They said: "Neither the 2300 Arena nor AEW have provided documentation showing that stagehands are being paid the area standard set by IATSE Local 8, or that workers are not being misclassified as independent contractors".

For the record, the "standard set by IATSE Local 8" calls for stagehands to be paid "the union’s collectively bargained hourly rate of $54.40". However, the 2300 Arena isn't a union venue - IATSE nonetheless argues that paying any less "undermines their ability to maintain and grow its members’ compensation in future negotiations".

AEW Has Commented On The Protest

Post Wrestling has received comments from AEW about the issue. The company's stance is that any problems exclusively exist between the 2300 Arena and IATSE Local 8: "All Elite Wrestling has paid, and will continue to pay, the prevailing wages to all locals used as part of our residency at the venue and has maintained a great relationship with IATSE Local 8 for previous events held at other venues in Philadelphia".

Reaffirming their statement, AEW sources said: "Any current demonstrations being held are between 2300 Arena and IATSE Local 8".

That's when 2300's CEO Roger Artigiani emailed Post to chime in himself. He added: "Our workers are being paid the fair wage that they claim is not being paid", and said he'd have even more details to share after Wednesday's edition of Dynamite had come and gone.

AEW's roster will be housed at Philly's 2300 Arena until the 11 September Collision taping is in the books. They'd told PWInsider that they'll be using workers brought in by the venue throughout their run. Further, an AEW spokesperson also told PWInsider: "It appears the union is using the fact that AEW is producing a bunch of global broadcasts from the legendary venue to garner attention and try to pressure the Arena into using union labor, nothing more".

Naturally, as is always the case with stories like this, select fans on social platforms are using this as a means to bicker back and forth about WWE and AEW.