The Union That Builds the Ring Backs Cruz’s Ali Boxing Bill

By Larry Goldberg

The union that builds the ring has written the Senate about the boxing bill. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, known as IATSE, is the union behind the crews at every major American fight: the stagehands who build the set and the ring surrounds, the electricians and riggers who hang the lights and sound, the camera operators and broadcast technicians who put the fight on television. It is the same union that staffs Broadway, Hollywood film sets, and arena concerts, more than 170,000 members across the United States and Canada. When a big card runs at a major arena, the people who built the set, lit it, and broadcast it are IATSE members.

That union has now endorsed S. 5188, the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act, in a letter to Senate leadership, the first union letter aimed at the Senate bill since Cruz and Rosen introduced it in July. The letter, dated September 8 and signed by IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb, is addressed to Majority Leader John Thune, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, Ranking Member Maria Cantwell, and Senator Jacky Rosen, the bill’s co-author. It asks the Commerce Committee to report the bill and the full Senate to pass it “without delay.”

The union’s argument is a jobs argument, and it is worth being precise about whose jobs. As marquee fights have migrated overseas, the production work has gone with them, and the union’s interest is crew work in American buildings. That is a legitimate interest and a different one from fighter protection, which is the ground the bill’s opponents have chosen to fight on. The letter argues the two align, that a modernized framework brings major events, and the union labor that stages them, back to American arenas. It does not engage the medical or contract provisions at all.

The letter also confirms the shape of the support behind the bill. IATSE cites the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, facility operators, the Association of Boxing Commissions, Lonnie Ali, and Mike Tyson as prior supporters. The timeline runs in two phases: arena operators and the Teamsters lined up during the House push last December, the House passed its version by voice vote in March, and IATSE is the first major labor letter aimed at the Senate bill Cruz and Rosen introduced in July. One distinction matters: the Senate text is not the House text, with different contract provisions and an implementation timeline the House bill did not have, so an endorsement of S. 5188 is an endorsement of the Senate version specifically. The Teamsters letter, for its part, was entered into a House hearing record in December and has never appeared on the union’s own channels, and the Teamsters have not publicly re-upped for the Senate text.

Neither has IATSE posted this one. The letter reached the public through the bill’s opponents: the Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Association published images of it on X and called the endorsement of a bill it believes “will lead to fighter and labor exploitation leading to monopoly” extremely disappointing, asking the union to reconsider. The MMAFA has opposed the legislation since its earliest drafts, and its objection sits on the fault line the letter itself exposes: the unions signing on represent workers around the ring under negotiated contracts, while the fighters inside it are independent contractors with no bargaining unit and no union letter of their own.

Zach Arnold of Fight Opinion read the letter as part of a broader effort, writing that it was no surprise to see Ari Emanuel and Nick Khan lean on Hollywood and live arena ownership to “make the hard sell for the Ali Revival Act.” If that is the strategy, it is running through Congress rather than social media: a check of the day’s activity turned up no posts from TKO, Zuffa Boxing, or the major arena companies promoting the letter. The sell is being made in institutional letters to Senate offices.

The opposition has institutions of its own on the record: Oscar De La Hoya’s Senate testimony, Bob Arum’s letter to the committee, USA Boxing’s withdrawal of support, Nico Ali Walsh’s testimony, and Pat English, who helped write the original Ali Act. What it does not have is a peer labor union, and the pro-passage side has two.

No markup has been scheduled or announced by the Commerce Committee, and neither Cruz’s nor Rosen’s office has commented on the letter. What IATSE asked for is specific: report the bill, then pass it. Whether the committee’s calendar answers that request is the next thing to watch.

BoxingInsider.com has covered this legislation from every angle, from the April hearing and TKO’s pitch to the committee to the New Jersey model the committee should copy.