Stagehands Get Lots of Support for Broadway Strike

by James Parks, Nov 20, 2007

The Thanksgiving holiday is a time for families and friends to come together and the striking stagehands on Broadway are finding they have lots of friends in the union movement.

Contract negotiations are set to resume after the Thanksgiving holiday. After months of unsuccessful negotiations, the members of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 1 were forced out on strike Nov. 10, leaving most of Broadway’s stages dark. The main issues in the contract talks are work rules and wages. About a quarter of the 2,200 members of Local 1, who build scenery, maintain props and install and operate lighting and sound equipment, work in Broadway theaters.

The New York City Central Labor Council issued a statement saying it stands

in full solidarity with IATSE Local One in their fight for a fair contract and we know the union did everything in their power to keep the neon lights bright on Broadway.

The council is urging its 1.3 million members from 400 local unions to join the picket lines. When they come out they will be joined by the actors and musicians who perform on the Broadway stages. Members of Actors’ Equity and the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) Local 802 made it clear they are standing with their union brothers and sisters with whom they work side by side on the play, the “Great White Way.”

Equity, in a statement, says:

In a highly technical and dangerous work environment, stagehands make it safe for us to work. Their craft and expertise may not be apparent from the audience, but it is absolutely integral to the running of the show.

Since July 31, the stagehands have bargained in good faith. The producers have stonewalled the stagehands and forced them to work without a contract under imposed work rules. The stagehands offered compromised and counter-proposals, but the Producers repeatedly said “it’s not enough.” That’s called bullying, not bargaining.

The AFM also strongly backs the stagehands. As Local 802 says:

However the [producer] hawks may rationalize their position, they would do well to remember that as individuals most of them are economically set for life, but the labor stoppage they precipitated will profoundly affect many thousands of workers on Broadway as well as businesses and employees who depend upon Broadway for their income and who many never recover.

Let Thanksgiving be a holiday not a wake. In a strike there are only losers. It follows that in a resolution there should only be winners.

This is the second strike on Broadway in the past five years. Musicians walked out for four days in 2003.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)