Backstage: New York City Opera declared an impasse Thursday in contract negotiations with unions for its singers and musicians, threatening to present its abbreviated season without them.
The unions for the company's singers, chorus and ballet dancers responded by saying they may strike, and they asked individuals and corporations to boycott buying tickets and withhold donations to the financially troubled company.
4 comments:
If a company can't afford to continue to pay for its usual venue and has to move, striking because of that and trying to get audiences to boycott the productions doesn't seem to me like a way to get better wages for the performers, to me it seems like a way to all but guarantee that they will have no jobs at all when the company finally goes under. If somehow the company does manage to put on a season with substitute performers and it goes well, then why would they ever want to go back to working with the union that tried to drive them under?
This seems like the company has been mismanaged for a decade and now they are with their backs against the wall. Like many other performance companies there was not enough proactive problem solving done when the company could have bargained to save itself. Their back is against the wall and there is blood in the water. It seems to me that the board of trustees should have stepped in and removed upper management five years ago. No other field can you post record losses and remain employed.
It is not good on the performers part to go on strike now. It is obvious that if the company is moving from a place that they have been for years they are trying to keep everyone employed that work for them. They also have cut a lot of jobs from the office part of their operation. If the talent goes on strike then there money will go away and then they would go under, then that talent would just have no job to go back to. I just wonder what position of the talent has a problem with all of these new things or is it just a few people having problems and making it a big deal. I hope in the coming days the stop the strike and go back to working.
In the long run boycotts just hurt the people that propose them. If the company that you are working for is not making money then you are not making money and also you are hurting the industry that you are a part of. I understand why unions need to strike and to do boycotts but sometimes I think that sometimes people over react and that the unions hold too much power. Getting paid and valued appropriately in the arts is a tricky thing to do. but I don't think it should be done to the extent where it threatens other peoples jobs and livelihoods.
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