From Local One

Just received this from the spokesperson for Local One. Any thoughts?

Dear Brothers and Sisters of Actors Equity and all the people of Broadway:

"Either we all hang together, or we will most certainly hang separately." said Benjamin Franklin.

As the work stoppage on Broadway makes headlines around the world, we must note that the whole world is watching. The League of American Theatres and Producers, now known to the media for their great communications inaccuracies, has sent one more letter around the Rialto designed to divide and conquer us.

Local One deplores the vain attempt to splinter the unions, especially the recent one directed at Actors Equity, the first and foremost union of performers in America. The first strike on Broadway for fair wages and benefits was by actors demanding equity. The current strike on Broadway continues in that tradition.

The League's intention in driving Local One to the picket line is not about art, but money. Less for us is more for them. A few years ago they stood ready to replace musicians with canned music. If they can chalk up a win against Local One, the next people in the producers' gun sight will be actors. Then they'll pick off the other unions one by one.

The eloquent and elegant words of Actors Equity's new executive director are still echoing throughout the canyons of the Great White Way. All of Broadway stood up to cheer John Connolly. All working people who heard his oration knows he speaks for them.

Local One truly appreciates the support that all our brothers and sisters working on Broadway have shown for us in this difficult time. Our membership deeply regrets the hardships you are enduring.

The talents of stagehands differ from that of actors, musicians, press agents, designers or make-up artists. But it is the merging of all of our many talents, skills and craftsmanship that makes the magic of Broadway. Front of house, back of house or back office, we are all Broadway, and that is what brings us together.

This fight, with Local One now at the fore and Actors Equity and other unions honoring our picket lines and joining us out in the cold, will long be remembered - not just for how we all suffered, not for what we won and lost, preserved and discarded, but for the unity we showed.

The firmer we stand together now to defend one union's wages, benefits, jobs and jurisdiction, the more the league will respect each union when its turn is taken at the negotiating table. The League only respects power, strength, force and, above all, solidarity. After all, it is The League's hope to hang us all separately.

If there is anything that all of us can agree on, it is the imperative for both sides to meet and negotiate a fair and equitable contract and return the magic to Broadway.

In Solidarity,

Your Brothers and Sisters of Local One, IATSE

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STRIKE, strike, strike, strike, STRIKE, strike, strike, strike... I

There's way too much going on with this strike, I don't even know where to begin. Y'all probably know that a judge is forcing the Jujamcyns to reopen the Grinch -- how strange that the local and the producers had to go to court to have the theatre owner unlock the house...sigh. This is, I hear, going to be even more bitter before this is over.

While it's true that my default emotional reaction is anti-management as I think management is inherently abusive, I think both sides have much to be ashamed of.

This post will deal strictly with an email I got the other day from Bruce Cohen, who represents the striking local. It pertains to the average salary a member of the local makes -- and how the League has gone out of its way, like the Bush Administration in the run-up to the murder of the nation's treasure, to distort and outright lie -- that is, if we can prove that the local's viewpoint is unassailable.

Anyway, Boris Kachka of New York Magazine did this side by side comparison, which I think should be required reading. Who do you believe?

And Bruce also suggested that everyone take a look at this Newsday article from November 17. Like I said, who do you believe?

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Assessing the Strike

Very simple: I'm 100% against featherbedding, and in that I think the League has a legitimate point and should argue it strenuously. But I think the League consists of a group of completely disingenuous bastards who deserve whatever pain they receive as a result of Local One going out on strike. I mean, will the removal of featherbedding, for example, bring down ticket prices? Will it bring about more commercial productions -- thus more work for Local One members? Who is benefitting other than the shallow, mealy-minded, crass buttheads who pass off crap on Broadway as the apotheosis of high art?

I'm looking for a YouTube video of Charlotte St. Martin from her appearance yesterday on TV. Oh, pity the children, she says, pity the savaged tourists who come to New York just to be able to inhale the Broadway spirit -- oh, how could those union people have destroyed their lives!! What a sourpuss. What a shame.

Meanwhile, this was part of the press release I received yesterday announcing the press conference that already happened today at 11am. Interesting stuff.

Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees is not ashamed to protect good middle class jobs that support home mortgages, family health care and education in good public schools and opportunities for decent higher education for the children of union members.

The producers' releases have celebrated an offer of 16.5% increase in wages, but what the producers failed to mention in any of their public relations materials is that their offer was accompanied by a 38% cut in jobs and income.

Producers are enjoying a billion dollar season with shows making record profits and record box office receipts. The intransigence of the producers may lead to the disappointment of 20 to 30 thousand theater-goers each day and will affect restaurants and hotels. A major dent will be inflicted on New York City's prime industry, tourism.

All of the commercial producers and theaters on Broadway except the New Amsterdam, which is owned by Disney, are non-public corporations and do not make public their profits and losses. Last year, the League announced Broadway box office grosses of $939 million but income from licensing, subsidiary rights for films and tours, and hugely lucrative merchandise sales as well as producers' show profits and office fees, are an industry secret. Losses from flops such as Pirate Queen and High Fidelity cost producers $96 million, claimed the League.

The League has remained silent on profits and secondary revenue streams.

Local One has never struck Broadway. On October 12, Mr. Claffey called for a strike vote three days after the producers handed their final offer across the table. With no talks scheduled, and producers possibly locking out Broadway or implementing onerous work rules, the union saw a strike authorization as the next action in defense of good middle class jobs.

On October 9, Mr. Claffey said, "what the producers failed to do was recognized our suggestions with exchanges of its own. What they failed to understand is what I said publicly and privately in the last year: Local One is open to exchanges on work rules and other areas, but would not make a concessionary agreement of any kind. Local One will not accept cuts."

Local One's repeated position is that any alteration to the work rules must come in exchange for other benefits to its members. (The New York Times, July 26, 2007)

In the negotiations, the producers said they were seeking more flexibility in determining when, and how many, stagehands are needed.

"The union addressed nearly every item on the producers' list and offered imaginative solutions that met the producers' requests," said Mr. Claffey on October 9.

If there is a work stoppage on Broadway, Broadway stagehands will readily find work in other areas of the union's.vast jurisdiction throughout Manhattan, The Bronx, Staten Island, Westchester and Putnam, including television, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, City Center, hotels, trade shows and Lincoln Center (there are as many Local One jobs at Lincoln Center alone as there are on Broadway.)

For 121 years, Local One has been the premier stagehand union of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. The union represents 3,000 property persons, stage and studio electricians, set carpenters, sound designers, audio technicians, moving-light operators, riggers and special effects people in New York.

For a history of Local One, click here.

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