> Like will it go on the 26th-27th-etc?
no, it only means that the league preemptively canceled performances for the week (which means they don't think there's any chance of coming to agreement, so why bother continuing to negotiate...I guess that's why the league walked out of the meeting last night at 9PM instead of sticking around until 4 or 5 in the morning to try to hammer out a deal, like they did the last time this contract came up). The union members on the picket line tonight saw that, and what is going on with the Grinch lockout, as an indication that the producers really don't care about the industry or their workers. They want to impose their new contract on the stagehands union (and you can bet they will do the same with Equity after that, and every other union after that).
As to explaining to you why the union is fighting, and what the issues are, it's really complex and it's hard to know where to start. I'll give you my take on it. This is just my opinion.
Since the recovery of broadway after the 9/11 attacks (when the union made huge concessions to the producers, btw), the industry has been so incredibly vibrant and successful that most of the time there are no theatres available for new shows to book (right now I think there are two: the Longacre, which is being renovated, and the Belasco, which was booked for "Lone Star Love", which fell through, but supposedly "Passing Strange" is coming in there).
There are weeks and weeks and weeks where there are a bunch of shows reporting grosses over a million dollars, and their franchises on the road also grossing millions of dollars (how many companies of "Jersey Boys" are out right now? How about "Wicked"?). And average-joe stagehand understands that even when a show isn't covering their operating expenses (the "nut"), the general managers, theatre owners, etc., are still getting huge weekly paychecks. Phil Smith earns $1.5 million a year and has a 9-room apartment on Park Avenue, an apartment in Florida, and gives his wife a $400/week allowance. Paul Libin has a house in East Hampton. But the League tries to tell the public that the stagehands are the ones who are rich and greedy. Don't be fooled.
So, then, we get to the expiration of this contract (back in July) and the producers tell the stagehands "we are losing SO much MONEY!" (and we read the variety box office grosses page in confusion). "Four out of five shows fail!" (we think to ourselves, fair enough, here are five shows from the same season: Jersey Boys, Lestat, Hot Feet, In My Life, Ring of Fire -- maybe four of those failed because they were CRAP? WE see these shows too, you know...you really want us to subsidize you putting more crap on broadway?) "We need you greedy stagehands to take salary cuts so we can make MORE money!" (uhm, ok, setting aside that you just insulted us, how about you just raise ticket and concession prices some more. oh, wait, you already did that). "You guys don't do ANYTHING!" (now you are REALLY getting insulting, come climb a 70 foot ladder to the grid and pull electrical cables across the ceiling for a few days in 100 degree heat, and then come tell me we don't do anything, until then STFU).
After the 2004 contract was settled, the league (thanks to a new union-busting lawyer Bernie Plum, who replaced the gentleman who retired, Alan Jaffe) decided 2007 was the year to break the union, take a 60 page contract and rip it to shreds and start over, and, if necessary, take the tourist economy down in flames, if need be. During Thanksgiving and Christmas. While Herschel Waxman tells us just how much he respects us. Yeah Herschel. Whatever. They built up a $20 million warchest (and made sure we knew about it). Before we even started formal negotiations, they told us "you might as well take your strike vote now". They negotiated with us for a few meetings (and by that, I really mean, they told us what they were going to take away from us, and we were going to get nothing) and when we got to the beginning of October they decided that NOW would be the time to weather a strike. So they implemented their new rules on the union workers, and told us "this is what it is from now on". I'm sure they expected us to strike immediately (I'm leaving out that they implied they were going to lock us out...but the bad P.R. changed their minds, I guess). We still tried to negotiate with them. The League has made it clear to us now that they don't want an agreement. They want to break the union and destroy the existing contract.
The union members aren't having it. We are not the lowest-paid union on broadway, that's a fact. But we are the ones who have the power and leverage to fight this fight not just for our members and our families but also for the rest of the broadway unions. We aren't going to be replaced by synthesized orchestras. And we aren't going to be replaced by kids new to the business from Corky St Clair's School of Technical Theater. And our jobs aren't going to be off-shored. We are fighting this not just for us, but for all of the entertainment industry workers.
And that's where we're at.
and that's the SHORT version, I'm afraid
