Broadway stagehands say ‘No!’ to job and wage cuts

On a chilly Sunday afternoon Nov. 11, dozens of theater stagehands marched in a series of picket lines on Broadway. Carrying placards and handing out leaflets, they let people know why they had gone on strike the day before: theater owners and producers are demanding a 38 percent cut in their jobs and wages.

The stagehands, members of Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, have refused these terms. They have been in negotiations with the League of American Theatres and Producers since their contract expired in July. In October the 3,000-member union unanimously voted to allow the union to call a strike and on Nov. 10 they did so. The strike, the first in the union’s 121-year history, shut down 31 of Broadway’s 39 theatres.

Picketing under marquees for “Avenue Q,” “Chorus Line,” Phantom of the Opera,” “Les Miserables” and other shows, the stagehands were upbeat. A taxicab driver honked and waved a thumbs-up in support. Members of other unions, including the Actors’ Equity Union and the musicians’ union Local 802, were on the line offering their support.

Outside the Schubert Theatre where “Monty Python’s Spamalot” had been performing, two musicians from the musical stood in solidarity with the stagehands, playing tunes on their trumpet and trombone. They told Workers World that the stagehand workers are fighting the same battle Broadway musicians waged in 2003, when they went on strike against job cuts.

“The theater owners and producers are using the same strong-arm tactics,” said one of the musicians, who preferred to remain anonymous.

Four years ago, theater producers sought to eliminate orchestra jobs, accusing musicians of “featherbedding”—requiring theaters to hire a specific number of people for a show. The musicians did not fare well in that battle. One of the “Spamalot” musicians said theater producers cut about 25 percent of musician jobs, so orchestras now play with 15 members instead of the previous 20 to 23. He noted that saxophone players are now also playing English horn and oboe to make up for the orchestra not having full sections of brass and woodwinds.

The League of American Theaters and Producers are leveling the same bogus claims against the stagehands, saying union rules force them to pay for an unnecessary number of stagehands.

“We think it is fair to be able to hire the workers we need and to pay them for the work they do,” Charlotte St. Martin, the executive director of the League, said in a statement posted on the League’s website. “We think it is not fair to have to hire workers we don’t need and pay them for doing nothing. No industry can continue to tolerate such featherbedding. Certainly not ours, where four out of five productions are failures.”

Despite the failed shows, theater producers are making huge profits. Projection, Lights and Staging News (PLSN) noted in an Oct. 8 article that Broadway shows had a record-breaking season in 2006-2007, with grosses of $939 million. By comparison, during the 2005-2006 season 19 of 39 shows opened and closed without recouping investments, for an aggregate loss of $96 million.

Theater producers want workers to pay for their losses. PLSN reported that a primary issue is the number of stagehands employed during the load-in, the time when a production is moving into a theatre. Producers set the number of stagehands they use, but they don’t want to pay them all every day.

“They want us to come in and instead of working a full day they want to pay us for two hours,” said Local One spokesperson Bruce Cohen in a phone interview. “They’d like to pay less for stagehand labor, and we’d like a raise.” The producers “have never done anything this destructive in the past,” he said.

The stagehands are not fighting alone. The Actors’ Equity Association 1913 joined them on the picket lines, handing out a leaflet addressed to audience members. “In a highly technical and dangerous work environment, stagehands make it safe for us to work,” the leaflet states. “Their craft and expertise may not be apparent from the audience, but it is absolutely integral to the running of the show.”

The first show to shut down as a result of the strike was “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” The star of the show, Patrick Page, stood outside the theater the first day of the strike signing autographs. He voiced support for the stagehands in an interview with Playbill, a trade publication. “These guys are the backbone of Broadway,” he told Playbill.com. “I’ve worked with some of these guys on four or five Broadway shows and they are amazing craftsmen and workers.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered to mediate discussions between the League and union, as he did during the Broadway musicians strike. But the union, perhaps wary of getting a similarly bad deal, turned the mayor down. In the meantime, the strike shows how valuable the stagehands are to the economy. The League said the strike would cost the city $17 million a day.

New York City, which receives millions in tax revenue based on the Broadway-related tourist trade, lost $7 million a day during the musicians’ four-day strike in 2003.

The stagehands’ strike is the second to roil the entertainment industry. The Writers Guild of America went on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers Nov. 5, fighting for a slice of the profits studios make from digital media.

The message of both battles is the same: movie, television and theater producers have to share their profits with the workers who allow the shows to go on.