LOCAL ONE AUTHORIZES STRIKE — Page 5

It's absolute truth. I'm sick of local one guys running around playing the minimum wage card when they are doing QUITE well for themselves.

No, you have no part in the creative aspects of the show. If you wanted that, you would be spending several years interning, doing showcases, and generally spending a good 1/2 your professional life working for free. The same way producers, directors, actors and designers do.

How many members in local one are at any given time unemployed? I bet it's nowhere near the 90% or more unemployment rate that equity has. Local one members are not in it for the art and they have no desire to take a risk. They are often born into their union and don't have to worry very often when the next job is coming in. By choosing to strike, (and yes they are choosing to strike), they are undoubtedly going to cause several shows to dip if not shutter completely. I think it's a selfish move. Agree with me or not, it's the way I feel.

My experience tells me that the confusion around the $100/hr minimum is this. A stagehand is brought in for a four-hour work call. After everything is deducted, take home is probably about $100 for that four-hour call. If you're on the producing end and get a bill from the house at $100/hr for that four hour call, that would be the hourly mark up for the house.
As for your child's first theatrical experience, I would suggest you explain to your child that making sacrfices for the common good is the true American way. "From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more." Luke 12:48

Strikes suck for everyone. Period.

That being said...how do I find out tomorrow morning if I should make the trek to NYC? I have tickets to a show that I'm assuming WILL be affected.

So do I wake up and tune in to the antics on the BWW message board? Do I get a refund if the strike DOES happen tomorrow?

Please excuse my ignorance of this topic...but I can't stand to read 5 pages of argument.

localone- no need to be so obnoxious.

OneNY-"we will not be forced into givebacks during a time of plenty. " What time of plenty are you taking about? Most shows are losing money and not paying back their investments, but the crews are working and getting paid. There are only a very few shows that are making money, granted some are making a lot of money, but the rest are not. So your a bit off base with this 'time of plenty'. Producers dont want a strike or a lockout, they just don't want to pay for work that is not necessary or not performed at all. Pretty simple really. The union wants an equitable exchange in return for lost work. Not sure that is fair, since much of the 'lost' work will be overhiring or paying for hours of work when less time is needed to complete the job.

If a strike is called, do you think they'll let us know ahead of time (preferrably before Tuesday evening)? 'cause y'know, I'd hate to be in the city with my tix, having 'missed-out' on getting the memo that the strike had started.

If a show doesn't make money, why run it? Close it. If somebody pitches a script for a possible broadway run and your first reaction is "wow, that sounds....interesting", who's to blame for the investor losing their investment when the finished product turns out to be junk like Lestat or Good Vibrations or (name your favorite flop)? Not me. I just come to work when I'm told, I do the best job I possibly can, and do everything in my (limited) power to make the show a success, because even I, lowly stagehand, can recognize that the longer a show runs, the longer I get a check, and the less likely I will be unemployed during one of our seasonal down-times (they happen twice a year, folks, like clockwork...we don't all get to work 12 months out of the year, some of us only manage 8 steady months if we're lucky...or un-lucky, depending on how you look at it)

There are no $100/hour jobs in the contract. I have the contracts here on my desk. It's fiction. And as for stagehands "not doing anything" usually if we're waiting around it's because somebody in a supervisory or artistic position has run out of things for us to do and is off somewhere trying to figure out what to do next (oh! oops! that set piece won't fit through the door into the theatre! now what? ... god how I wish I was making that up, and how I wish I could convey how often something that stupid happens).

Cymbeline. Lincoln Center.
Yay or nay? Do we know?

now if there is a strike, does that mean the actors still have to go to the theater for the time their show would be running?

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you are taking this way out of proportion, calm down

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Updated On: 11/9/07 at 05:20 PM

"Have you seen the work call sheets for pretty much any commercial space where Local One has a jurisdiction? If you have you would realize that a $100/hr, 4-hour minimum is not very far-off base."

As a matter of fact yes, I have seen work call sheets on the 5 B'way shows I've worked as a stage manager and I'm here to say that $100/hr is off base, it's not even close.

"And clearly my message was lost on someone of your obvious intellect and maturity, but I was trying to make the point that while posting the League's addresses where one might want to complain, you could just as easily make complaints to the organization which is CHOOSING to close down Broadway."

No your message was loud and clear. You're wanting to place the blame squarely on the Union for not caving to the League's demands, by using anecdotal and fictitious evidence to try and prove that the Union is somehow holding the League hostage.

The League can continue to bargain in good faith, or they can leave the table, knowing full well what the outcome will be. The Union has been working without a contract since July and have continued to work under the new rules imposed by the League. I'd say that's a pretty good sign that they are not trying to force a strike, but if the League refuses to negotiate, what choice do they have? It is after all a "collective bargaining" agreement and if one side chooses the option of not bargaining, then the other side has no alternative but to strike in order to force an agreement. You can blame the Union all you want for a job action, but the League is equally responsible because they have left the table.

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Updated On: 11/9/07 at 05:28 PM

Why shouldn't they "bicker"? They had different opinions and they argued them. Beats the hell out of reading about everyones "favorite songs from CURRENT broadway shows"

If you are really so concerned BwayJerry, then, I would buy tickets for a show not on the list for your child because that is the responsible thing to do. Try Mary Poppins? Xandu? Young Frankenstein. If you purposely choose to go to a show you know is on the Strike list than I question your devotion to introducing your child to Broadway.

You can consider your other purchase to be a donation to the League for the struggle they will face in trying to put more people out of work, while dumping even more responsibility on others to pick up the slack.

Back on topic for a second...

Since it's 7:42, is it safe to say no strike tonight?