STRIKE TOMORROW — Page 6

Anyone know if tech rehearsals would be affected by the strike as well? The Homecoming is supposed to begin previews November 23rd; assuming their tech is scheduled for next week, would that stay on schedule, or would the first preview night get pushed back?

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Updated On: 11/10/07 at 10:38 AM

Surprise Jerry, I've been in Equity for 33 soon to be 34 years. Yup, since 1974. I know all about what it takes to get health insurance, and what the unemployment rate is among actors and stage managers. And I knew these things when I joined the Union. I chose to join the Union because of the benefits and the pay scale, knowing that I might not always meet the requirements, for health insurance, but also knowing that because I was a Union memeber I would be able to pay for that insurance myself at a lower rate than I would if I were to try and get it on my own.

When I retire I will also have a nice pension that has grown over the years, plus a 401K plan because of the Union. Something I wouldn't have had if I'd chosen to remain non-equity. Do you suppose a producer would voluntarily contribute to the Health and Pension funds without a Union? I think it's highly unlikely. How many non-Equity actors and stage managers do you know, that have worked for producers who contribute to their health care and retirement?

You may think that unions are no longer a necessity, but I strongly disagree. Without them, there would be fewer protections for the people who are actually doing the work that helps to bring in the profits. And without them, the producer might want to lower wages, add more performances per week without additional payment, do away with pension and health care contributions, rehearse 12 hours a day, not pay per-diem when working out of town, etc. The list could go on and on.

I'm thankful that I'm a Union member, and even though I may not always support all the demands that the Union makes, I would rather have them there to represent me than have no representation at all.

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Updated On: 11/10/07 at 10:44 AM

Maybe they have thier own road crew as do most concerts? interesting!

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Maybe they have thier own road crew as most concerts do? Interesting!

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Maybe they have thier own road crew as most concerts do? Interesting!

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Since the strike could theoretically end at any time (remember the last work stoppage a few years ago due to the musicians' strike only lasted 4 days), Telecharge will be refunding on a day to day basis. So, don't worry about December yet -- it could hopefully be over by then.

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This is terrible. The local one union are greedy '***holes. Striking is going to hurt some shows so badly they will have to close and then the stage hand swill lose jobs, just what they were trying to avoid. Serves them right. On top of that they are putting many other people in the industry out of work. People who need the job. But they don't care. They are truly fools. Not sure why the industry doesn't just start hiring scabs to replace them and et rid of their union. Almost anyone could learn to do most of their jobs and the shows would go on just fine.

And the actors union is supporting them. Even bigger fools because local on would never support the actors. Ever been backstage and heard a union guy talk about the actors? Usually not very nice.

I am pissed!

Bwdyinsider: blaming the union for the situation at hand is narrow minded. Producers share the blame, if not all the blame. The whole thing could have been avoided but, there was no movement by the producers.

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Is it official yet?

If it is, I, too, predict it will be short, and like the musician's strike, local one will not get what they want - oh, all sides will SAY they made concessions and got gains, but that's not what happened with the musicians - they settled the strike, yes, but the producers basically got what they wanted, and gave the musicians a few carrots but not the carrots they wanted.

At the time the strike was first approved, the Union president quite specifically said that they would give the public plenty of notice of a strike. I think it's safe to say that that didn't happen. Anyone know (or speculate) why? In theory, they could have announced the strike today to begin on Tuesday. This isn't a complaint, btw, I'm just curious as to why people think the union timed this the way they did.

"I don't want to sound snobby, but, I mean, you'd have to be blind not to have seen this coming."

No you wouldn't. I saw it coming because I frequent theater websites. Outside of these sorts of sites and New York sources, this has gotten very little coverage. Last month it got some coverage, when there were headlines like "Broadway on Brink of Strike," but nothing came of that--at the time. Again, my post was not a complaint.


"Everyone could basically see that the negotiations were not going well, and this was going to happen eventually."

Again, no, "everyone" could not have seen that. And anyways, 'eventually' is the operative word. There's a difference between "eventually" and knowing whether when you boarded a plane to NYC on Thurs/Fri with Broadway tickets for a show on Saturday you'd have a show to go to.


"I think the union just got so fed up with the producers and the negotiations that were accomplishing nothing that they chose to strike at the earliest possible date. Sure, I agree they could have given the public more prior notice, but it's too late now to worry about that."

I wasn't worrying about it. I'm just asking a question. And, thank you, you gave your answer in the previous sentence.

How will this end up being resolved? Like are there currently meetings going on to try to solve the problems? I'm really confused on everything.