Stagehands Mull Options After Contract Threat
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The president of the Broadway stagehands’ union, business managers, and attorneys met yesterday to develop several contingency plans should a group of theater owners begin unilaterally imposing portions of its final contract offer starting Monday, a spokesman for the union confirmed.
The League of American Theaters and Producers said Monday night it would begin imposing portions of its contract offer to the stagehands union, Local One, saying in a statement the move is “the next logical and responsible step.” Local One has not yet decided how to proceed if the contract is imposed, and would not make the decision public until it is announced to union members at a full union membership meeting on Sunday, when there will be a vote on whether to authorize a strike.
“Nobody’s going to find out what we do until we do it,” a Local One spokesman, Bruce Cohen, said. He added: “We will do everything absolutely possible to keep the lights burning on Broadway.” The producers group did not publicly release which aspects of its final contract offer would be implemented as work rules, but did say that no rules would go into effect until Monday.
“It is our strong preference to have a contract with Local One, and the implemented portions of the final offer at least give us some of the flexibility we need,” the executive president of the league, Charlotte St. Martin, said in a statement. “We are forced to implement because Local One will not pursue meaningful change.”
Both parties have been at odds since they submitted what they said were final contract offers on October 9. They have been arguing over whether stagehands should be paid for the work they physically do, as the league says, or whether a theater can hire stagehands daily regardless of whether work is available. Both sides have said they are open to further discussions, and would prefer to avoid a strike by the union or a lockout by the producers.
Mayor Bloomberg again offered for the city to mediate the dispute, but the president of the union, James Claffey Jr., “respectfully declined,” Mr. Cohen said.
“We negotiate our own contracts, and we’re perfectly willing to sit down with the league any time they are willing to negotiate,” he said.
