NEW YORK — Broadway is at a standstill today after failed negotiations between the stagehands’ union Local One and the League of American Theatres and Producers led IATSE International President Thomas Short to sanction a union strike on Saturday, Nov. 10.
According to IATSE, Short joined the Local One bargaining team and entered into lengthy discussions with the League that began on Wednesday. Short left the discussions Thursday, believing progress was being made and the two parties would reach an agreement by the end of the day.
Then negotiations took a sudden turn.
“I am dismayed that just hours after my departure, the employers made a 180 degree turn and began bargaining in a regressive manner,” Short says. “This action demonstrates a clear lack of will on the employers’ part to reach an agreement and leaves me no choice but to authorize a strike.”
The League’s Executive Director Charlotte St. Martin said in a prepared statement that Local One wouldn’t back off from their demands.
Local One has issued statements where they refuse to compromise their position, which focuses on issues surrounding staffing requirements and work rules. The League wants flexibility in the hiring of stagehands, but the union says the League does not take into consideration the number of people needed to keep a show up and running and safety issues in the theatre.
According to a press release, Local One claims the League is imposing a 38% cut of jobs and wages. “They have built a $20 million fund to be used against us from the sale of theatre tickets to the public. Broadway is a billion-dollar-a-year industry and has never been more profitable than now. Cuts in our jobs and wages will never result in a cut in ticket prices to benefit the public, but only an increase in the profits for producers.”
Local One President James Claffey, Jr. officially announced the strike at 10 a.m. Saturday in a press release. All Local One represented stage employees were directed to stop all work and no longer provide any services whatsoever until and unless authorized by the Local One office.
The lights of Broadway remain dark today, the third day of the strike, which hit theatres at the height of the busy holiday season with closed down performances of popular sell-out productions, including Phantom of the Opera, Rent, The Lion King and Jersey Boys. Theatergoers can still attend off-Broadway and nonprofit theatre productions, as well as the few Broadway productions unaffected by the strike, including Mary Poppins, Xanadu and Young Frankenstein.
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For information, please visit www.iatselocalone.org and www.livebroadway.com.
