Broadway Stagehands on Strike

by Jordan Yerman | November 10, 2007 at 08:31 am

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UPDATE: The stagehands' strike is now underway.

[q
url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7089231.stm"]Stagehands
at theatres on Broadway in New York have gone on strike, shutting down
more than 20 plays and musicals including The Lion King and Mamma Mia.

[/q]
[q
url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7089231.stm"]The League
of American Theatres and Producers wants more flexibility in those
rules so as to avoid paying for workers who have nothing to do.

"Our
goal is simple - to pay for workers we need and for work that is
actually performed," Charlotte St Martin, executive director of the
league said.

But the union says theatre owners have been unclear about what offsetting benefits stagehands can have in return.

Actor Patrick Page, star of How The Grinch Stole Christmas, said he supported the strike but hoped for an early settlement:

"These
guys on strike over here are the backbone of Broadway. They are the
guys who keep me safe, when I get hoisted up in the air in the show,
they are the guys who put light on me, who make sure everything
happens."

"I know that the Actors Equity Association really
supports the guys at Local One, I am a member of the union and we all
just want the shows to happen again," he said.

The Broadway
strike follows hot on the heels of a separate screenwriters' strike
which began in Hollywood last week, prompted by a disagreement over
royalty payments.[/q]

Again, the people behind the scenes are striking. As in Hollywood, so on Broadway, as stagehands walk off the job after working for months without a contract.

Picket lines went up at theaters throughout the Times Square area. The first show to be affected was "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical," a holiday attraction for families that had an early 11 a.m. matinee.

A spokesman for Local One, the stagehands union, declined comment on the work stoppage.

Lisa Linden, a spokeswoman for the League of American Theatres and Producers, said the group had not heard from the union regarding the job action. "It would be shocking if they would hurt the theatergoing public by shutting down Broadway without notice," she said.

The League and Local One have been in negotiations for more than three months, wrangling over work rules and staffing requirements, particularly requirements governing the expensive process of setting up a show.

Local One, which has been working without a contract since the end of July, was told Friday by its parent union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, to begin the walkout on Saturday.

[A]mong the shows shut by the walkout are such popular attractions as "Wicked," "The Phantom of the Opera," "Rent," "Les Miserables," "Monty Python's Spamalot" and "Mamma Mia!"

Timing of work stoppage has been ordered by the international president of IATSE, Thomas C. Short, who granted strike authorization to Broadway stagehands' union Local One after sitting in on contentious labor talks with Rialto producers Wednesday and Thursday.

First show affected Saturday looks to be “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” the holiday production whose unorthodox performance sked includes an 11 a.m. Saturday curtain.

Without stagehands, more than 25 productions will not perform. The only Broadway shows not affected are the theaters that have a separate contract with the union -- the four nonprofit houses as well as the Hilton, the Helen Hayes, the Circle in the Square and the New Amsterdam.

Actors’ Equity looks poised to honor the Local One picket lines, with the org’s website announcing that the Equity council has voted to support any potential strike.

There are no indications as to how long a work stoppage would last.