Saturday, October 13, 2007
Stagehands’ Union Calls for a Strike Vote
New York Times: "With contract negotiations between producers and stagehands at a standstill, the union representing almost all of the stagehands on Broadway yesterday scheduled a strike vote for Oct. 21."
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5 comments:
Eventually, Local 1 is considering the strike. This might be an inevitable step. I agree the union requests an equivalent benefit of making up for the adjustment of work rules. After all, Local 1 needs to take care of its members’ life and their families as well. Also, the rules-breaking might affect the other unions’ contracts with other organizations in the country. To the leagues, I would say they are too impatient. Only ONE revolution could hardly reverse the circumstance
I'm surprised that the Local One hasn't ever been on a strike before. It seems like that the conflict grew and grew to the point where it is either one or another. I hope the problem will be resolved with minimum amount of impacts on each other, although it seems like that is out of the question. I feel like this is only the beginning of the something that is bigger.
What's interesting to see, is that the union still has so much power. In a time when more and more unions are becoming more of a show than of an actual negotiation tool, it's interesting that the union is standing strong.
However, I'm surprised that they are still at an end pass and that neither side is willing to negotiate. The producers should be allowed more flexibility, but it shouldn't come at a cost of having the union loose money.
At this point, after all of these back-and-forth negotiations, it seems that either a strike or a lockout are the only way that this situation can be dealt with. Hopefully, after this, then one of the two sides will agree to negotiate, and a good medium is reached. Until we see a strike, though, which could be next week, we will probably not see much movement made in regards to ending the negotiations. The only possibility is that the producer's get nervous about the strike vote and give in to the demands of the stagehands, but at this point, a lockout looks more realistic.
I am surprised that Local 1 has never had a strike before, but also that they are considering one now. What the producers are proposing doesn't seem that unreasonable to me. I can see why Local 1 would be worried about losing work if producers call less people to a load in - but it seems like Local 1 is just trying to keep unnecessary workers getting paid while doing nothing at a load in. Which can be nice - but I would not want to do for a living. If I had a job in theatre, I would hope that it would not be standing around watching one man on a ladder work.
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