Sunday, October 21, 2007
Broadway's stagehands authorize strike but talks continue
Reuters: "Broadway's unionized stagehands voted on Sunday to authorize a strike over proposed new work rules for its members, but for now the shows will go on and negotiations have resumed."
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6 comments:
I can't say that I didn't see this coming. The best thing that the article said was that the local would not go on strike and that it looked like they would say open through the holiday season. Shows like "Young Frankenstein" would not be affected due to a strike. Note that this recent vote is only saying that the workers are willing to strike, not that they will.
This is not surprising news, however I feel that there might actually be a strike approaching even though they said they would still come to work. If negotiations don't go well with the league I would imagine a strike could ensue. I don't think the strike would last though and that if Broadway would shut down, it would probably be for less than a week.
Hopefully these negotiations will actually do the trick now that a strike seems much more possible. As we get closer to the holiday season, when Broadway business is at its absolute largest, the producers are not going to want to take any chances with a strike. They will most likely try to get any issues settled before this time comes around, whether the producers get the best end of the deal or not.
I might be mistaken, but I had read earlier that the producers had come up with a contract where they would hire stagehands for certain time periods when they really needed them rather than for the entire run, and would also be paying more. This article though sounds like they are not including the increased pay as part of the negotiations.
What exactly is the point to authorize a strike but not strike? It seems like authorizing a strike is a way of threatening the League and not striking yet is a strategic decision. If local 1 strikes now it will impact Broadway shows and income far less than during the holiday season when there is a surge in tourism and ticket sales. The threat of this much larger hit in profits is what local 1 is hoping will drive the League to compromise sooner and hopefully not have to strike at all. Striking is not immediately beneficial to anyone because everyone loses money.
This conflict has been taking baby steps for months. It seems that neither side wants a work stoppage. It also seems that the city doesn’t either. It was smart of Bloomberg to offer to mediate. If this conflict continues into the holiday season and ends in a shut down by either side, the economy of the entire city would be affected. Not to mention how disastrous a work stoppage would be for the shows that are purely seasonal. Although I don’t believe cirques new seasonal show in NYC is under the same contract. It will be interesting if cirque has a record holiday run, and the Producers League (who have been trying to keep cirque out of Manhattan) has a record low holiday season.
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