Talks announced to end deadlock of Broadway strike

Published Thursday 15 November 2007 at 15:25 by Judd Hollander

New talks are set to begin between New York stagehands and producers in a bid to end the strike which has left all but eight of Broadway theatres dark.

The meetings will take place this weekend “at an undisclosed place and time” between the League of American Theatres and Producers and The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local One, which represents the stagehands.

The announcement was made in a brief joint statement from both groups, which also made clear, “No interviews or comments from either organisation will be issued until further notice,” in effect, placing a news blackout on the negotiations. This is a marked change from the last few days, which has seen numerous duelling press releases sent out from both sides, with each accusing the other of not acting in good faith during the strike.

Stagehands have been on strike since Saturday, November 10, costing the industry an estimated $17 million dollars per day in both direct and indirect costs. The latter category includes various businesses which depend on Broadway for economic survival, such as local bars and restaurants.

The chief cause of the strike concerns union work rules which require producers to hire a set number of stagehands for a set period of time. The producers want to have more flexibility with these rules, hiring only those stagehands they need (especially during the load-in period of a show), while the stagehands, citing job security and the enormous profits Broadway makes, want to keep the rules in place.

The announcement of the talks came as a surprise to many in the industry who were predicting a long and bitter strike. As late as Wednesday morning (November 14), the union was reporting that they would not return to the bargaining table until the league treated them with more respect (and stopped using such terms as “featherbedding” when referring to the work rules), while the league said it only made sense for the talks to resume if the union would seriously talk about job cuts.

However economic concerns, (possibly for the other unions affected by the strike - i.e. actors and musicians), as well as the fact that Broadway is heading into its lucrative holiday period, apparently provided reason enough for the talks to start again.

The effects of the strike were readily apparent when the league released its weekly box office figures. Jersey Boys, the 2006 Tony Award winner for Best musical, took in only $732,840 last week, with a strike-shortened five performances schedule, down from $1,217,333 the pervious week. Elsewhere, the holiday musical How The Grinch Stole Christmas earned $163,298, down from $465,658; and The Phantom of the Opera made $400,888, a drop from $643,883. In addition, several shows have postponed their opening dates due to the strike, among them, Connor McPherson’s The Seafarer - a transfer from the National Theatre.

The few shows that remained open were reaping the benefits from a theatre going public which had not had much to chose from. The weekly grosses of Mary Poppins rose from $849,121 to $1,070,494, while Xandau went from $204,196 to $320,262.

Regardless of the outcome of the talks, the fact they are not starting until the weekend means the strike will last for at least nine days and continue to cause a severe economic drag on many businesses.