Broadway backstage staff edge closer to strike action

Published Wednesday 17 October 2007 at 13:45 by Judd Hollander

Contract negotiations remain at an impasse between producers and backstage staff on Broadway.

As a result, both sides - League of American Theatres and Producers and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local One - seem to be moving forward with acts designed to force a confrontation on the issue.

After ‘final offers’ were exchanged and rejected on October 9 with a last-ditch unofficial and unsuccessful meeting held three days later, it appeared Broadway was headed for its first shut-down in four years, with the League making noises about ‘locking out’ the stagehands, effectively shuttering all but a few of Broadway’s 39 theatres.

However, as the days passed, the League backed away from that standpoint, sending out several press releases announcing that Broadway would continue to operate as normal (albeit on a week-by-week basis). However, the ‘business as usual’ model changed with an announcement released on the evening of October 16, with the League stating that they plan to begin implementing portions from their latest contract proposal.

As Charlotte St Martin, executive director of the League, noted, they “are forced to implement because Local One will not pursue meaningful change. They not only rejected our offer; they submitted a counter-offer which would make matters worse by requiring even more non-productive hiring. During the life of the contract, under these provisions, costs for new musicals would rise by 30% and for plays would rise by 44%. This is indefensible in an industry with a financial failure rate of 80% in which only one in five productions recoups its costs.”

Martin’s mention of the financial failure rate is significant as it is a direct rebuttal to Local One’s continual mention of Broadway record-breaking profits and its accusing the producers of greed in their inability to reach a settlement. Also significant about the release is that it does not mention exactly which portions of the League’s proposal will be implemented, be it proposed higher wagers or changes in the work rules.

Union work rules, specifically those dealing with show load-in periods, are one of the major sticking points in the negotiations, especially those dealing with theatre load-ins. At present, producers must hire a set number of workers for a specific number of days, regardless of how long the process takes. The League wants more flexibility with the rules, while Local One, citing job security and reasons described above, wants to keep the current regulations in place.

Another interesting point of the League’s latest statement is that none of these new policies will be implemented before October 22. That date is important because October 21 is the day Local One will call for a strike vote. If the union does go out on strike, it will be the first such action in its 121-year history.

An affirmative strike vote does not guarantee a strike will actually happen. All it means is that the membership of the union will have authorized their leaders to call a strike should the need arise.

The last time there was a Broadway strike was in 2003, when the musicians’ union walked out for a four-day period, costing the industry millions of dollars in lost ticket sales. That strike was also over work rules, specifically how many musicians were required to be employed at specific Broadway theatres.