Valley News: When the bigwigs at Northern Stage say the law doesn’t apply to their professional theater company in downtown White River Junction, it’s not just an act.
Shortly before Christmas, Northern Stage informed five female employees at its state-of-the-art $9 million theater that even though Vermont’s hourly minimum wage was about to increase to $12.55, they wouldn’t benefit from the law change, which went into effect Jan. 1.
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I cannot believe that their lawyer "has expertise" in union matters with non-profit theaters. That implies that there must have been so many prior conflicts between non-profits and workers trying to negotiate better wages that this person could base a career off of it. That's disheartening, to say the least. Yes, it's great that the workers there voted to form a union under Local 919. Hopefully that means that there should be some positive change coming soon, but how soon is soon? If the company has this lawyer that's supposed to be excellent at union negotiations, an increase in pay could come pretty late in the game. I hope that they're able to reach an agreement soon, and rebudget their shows if funds are as big of an issue as they claim.
I wonder if this also means that lawmakers are going to have to reconsider their approach to minimum wage legislation in the future. The goal is to afford everyone a living wage, yet non-profits are exempt from their rulings. But, maybe being able to pass a ruling that applies to non-profits is not under their jurisdiction.
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