Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Sundance Institute Workers Join CWA

Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Just a few months before the 2026 Sundance Film Festival is set to begin, workers at the Sundance Institute have successfully secured voluntary recognition from management as members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 9003.

Staff delivered a petition to leadership this week and are now preparing to negotiate their first contract. Members of the Sundance Institute Workers United are eager to settle a deal that addresses concerns around staffing, wages and benefits.

“We are the staff of the Sundance Institute that are on the ground and working face-to-face with our audiences and artists,” said Sara Kenrick, who works in event operations, in a CWA press release. “We are the most valuable voices to this organization's purpose, and we have slowly but surely been pushed aside. We are understaffed and underpaid, and our concerns have been overlooked. If Sundance wants to continue being Sundance, they need to welcome us back to the table.”