Frank Taylor began as an apprentice in Lyric Opera’s Carpenter Department in 2006. In 2009 Taylor joined Local 2’s picket of “Pitchfork Festival” at Union Park. An agreement was reached for work on that festival within an hour after the demonstration began and Taylor stewarded that call all week. We’ve worked that festival every year since and Local 2’s crew has grown to more than 40 stagehands.

In early 2012, Taylor worked a daily bannering effort into his fulltime Opera schedule to make the public aware that Swank A/V was unfair to workers. His effort, which lasted a year, helped Swank become absorbed by PSAV. That created thousands of Local 2 jobs inside of hotels which had formerly been operated by Swank A/V, an anti-union company.

After ten Opera seasons Taylor began to steward various jobs, one of which was the first ever Nike “pop-up” store. Local 2 has since done many “pop-up” events largely based upon success Taylor brought Nike on their initial event.

In 2017 Taylor was elected to Local 2’s Executive Board and later that same year he was appointed by Business Manager Carlson to be Assistant Business Manager. In 2019, with vacancies created by the retirement of former President Kerins, Taylor serves as Local 2’s Vice President.

Taylor Co-Chairs Local 2’s Social Justice Committee and he’s a delegate to the Chicago Federation of Labor. Taylor is an active participant in the IA Training Trust Fund and has completed the October 2014 Officer Institute, December 2017 Advanced Secretary Treasurer Officer Institute, and the January 2019 Communications for Union Action class. Taylor holds a Labor Leaders certificate from Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations school.

Upon becoming an Executive Board Member, Business Manager Carlson stated, “Frank Taylor comes to our Board with great integrity, trade unionism in his heart and he provides invaluable help in making our social, political and educational initiatives a success”.