www.broadwayworld.com: It was previously reported that the Lyric Opera of Chicago had reached deals with four unions following ongoing negotiations with many of the opera's stakeholders. The opera had reached agreements with Stagehands Local 2, Wardrobe Local 769, Hair and Make-Up Local 476 and Treasurers and Ticket Sellers Local 750, according to Lyric Opera and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).
2 comments:
I won't pretend to know how much it costs to run an opera or pay an entire orchestra, but it does seem like the numbers aren't adding up. The budget is increasing, but the orchestra's hours and pay are being cut at the same time. That just seems odd to me, but I don't know how well I can comment on the financial goings on of a large opera company. That said, I can offer my opinion on they way the Lyric Opera is handling this. Recently in my hometown of Surprise, Arizona, the teachers went on strike for lack of a livable wage. My dad is a history teacher and I know this problem well. Rather than empathize with this situation or offer some kind of explanation, my old school district directly attacked the teachers calling it "shameful" that they would deny children education for a few days. This statement from Lyric Opera strikes me the same way. I don't think it benefits them in any way to say that the orchestra is being unreasonable or that their actions are "unnecessary and harmful". I believe their statement would be much more well received if they explained exactly why increased pay does not fit into their budget rather than make an attack like this.
Being in Production Personal Management we are learning all about strikes and the unions. We started off the class by discussing how strikes happen and then we transitioned into each union and how their contracts work. I find it very interesting how these contracts are created. One interesting thing mentioned in the article is that the lyric theatre had to negotiate with a lot of unions this year. It seems that all the unions wanted some type of change or all their agreements are up. Its always sad to see a theatre union on strike since one union will always affect the whole production. It seems that both sides to this argument need more time to figure out a good way to move forward. One of the major points I think will be the number of musicians and number of playing weeks. Even though the theatre is offering higher pay they are cutting weeks and members which is not good. This is not the first time the musicians union had to strike and I think producers and the union need to work better at negotiating the terms
Post a Comment