letter on local one website

[jerseygurl]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 10:39am

Dear Brothers and Sisters of Actor's Equity, Musicians Local 802, Operating Engineers Local 30, Teamsters Local 817, ATPAM, Local 306, Local 751, Local 764, Local 798, Local 829 and Local 32BJ:
Download a PDF version of this letter for posting.

This past Tuesday evening at curtain time, the producers put out a press release announcing that they intended to implement onerous work rules on Local One. An hour later, they backed off, sending a second release saying they would implement on Monday, October 22.

Local One found out about the producers' latest moves when Mayor Michael Bloomberg called James J. Claffey, Jr., President of Local One, to offer his help, which the union respectfully declined. Nobody at the League of American Theatres and Producers had the courtesy to call the Local One President.

From moment to moment, no one seems to know which work rules the League intends to implement from their expansive list of demands. That's what Local One has been dealing with during these negotiations. It started three years ago when the League verbally threatened Local One at the table, while also initiating an assessment on every ticket sold to the public to create a $20 million war chest to break our Union.

Some additional background: on September 7, after only five introductory meetings and on the day hard bargaining was to begin, Bernard Plum, the League's lead negotiator, declared that September 30 would be a day of reckoning. On October 9, the League presented its final offer to Local One and the press at the same time. Their final offer was not written for Local One, but for the media.

Ignoring the League's deadline, Local One put its entire book on the table and, as Local One President James J. Claffey, Jr. has declared publicly and privately, the Union addressed nearly every item on the producers' list and offered imaginative solutions that met the producers' requests.

We are professionals and unashamed to state that we are defending good middle class jobs that pay our mortgages, feed our families and allow our children to attend good schools.

The producers' numbers, so widely distributed, are misleading at best and often bogus.

Their press release celebrated an offer of 16.5% increase in wages. But the producers failed to mention their offer was accompanied by a 38% cut in jobs and income.

We are the caretakers of the theatre, the protectors of the workplace. We keep it safe for all of us. Six days a week, sometimes seven, we are the first to arrive and last to leave.

The producers' attack on flymen is ignorant to the basic safety concerns in any theater. Without a flyman, who would be addressing safety problems over head? Who would be checking rigging eight times a week? Who is the first line of defense against any fire in the fly space?

Why do you think there are still fire hooks and extinguishers, by law, located on the fly floors? And, if there were not a flyman on the grid, how long do you think it would take for someone on the stage to reach that fire-fighting equipment?

Automation? We've long embraced it. Local One is more productive thanks to automation. We've modernized along with the newest technology. We build, install, manage, and repair all of it. We operate safely tons of scenery moving around in the dark and at breakneck speed without injury to you or us.

The producers will also fail to tell you and the press that Local One labor over the last few decades remains 8% of the overall cost of producing a Broadway show. We get raises only when negotiated, but the producers raise ticket prices with every new hit, not to mention $450 premium pricing.

The attack on the working professionals of Local One by the League now and you later is all about profit (although they only put losses in their recent press releases).

Last year, the League announced Broadway box office grosses of $939 million. Secret is the income from licensing, secondary rights, film rights and the hugely lucrative merchandise sales.

The biggest secret of all is the producers' real profits.

In these negotiations, we put everything on the table except the safety of the stage crew and everyone entering the theater. The producers' attack on minimums is an attack on the safety and efficiency of the load-in of shows. It is also an insulting failure to recognize the size, the scope and the technical difficulty of the work we perform and the industry that is our life.

We stand ready to resume negotiations at any time and we stand ready to defend ourselves from the implementation of unsafe, unsound and unacceptable work rules that the producers are threatening to enact.

We are Local One. We are all under attack.

Respectfully and Fraternally,

The Membership of Local No. One

[musicalsFan]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 10:48am

But the producers failed to mention their offer was accompanied by a 38% cut in jobs and income.

We are NOT a welfare society.

If there is not work, then there should be no jobs.

If you insist on being paid no matter what, then that will eventually come around and bite you in the behind.

[ThankstoPhantom]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 10:53am

Both sides have pros and cons. It's a bit dodgy, the whole situation, but they do have a point about the massive profits in one respect....however, not all shows are really a part of it. And they gave a good explanation about the flymen. The fly space is still there, and as someone has said earlier, there is lighting up there.

[uncageg]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 11:39am

This may be a stupid question, but this "warchest", was this money that the producers got in case of a strike? And they charged us, the theatergoers, more to put some money into it?

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 12:21pm

"This may be a stupid question, but this "warchest", was this money that the producers got in case of a strike? And they charged us, the theatergoers, more to put some money into it?"

The answer would be yes. Anyone who bought a ticket over the past few years has contributed to the Leagues Strike Fund, whether they wanted to or not. Aren't surcharges a great thing? They can be put to all kinds of good uses.

So, everyone who purchased a ticket, has actually contributed to the strike lasting longer than it possibly would have, if there were no $20 million dollar strike fund. Let's all thank the League, shall we?

From Backstage:

"The league also has a strike fund that it has built up for a few years with ticket surcharges. According to various news reports, the fund totals approximately $20 million."


Backstage

Updated On: 11/11/07 at 12:21 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 1:02pm

Well then that ticks me off. The union members weren't able to do this were they? I would suspect if they wanted to put money away for this strike, it would have to be out of their own pockets? But the surcharge we have been paying only goes into the producers' pockets? That's not right. Some people have argued that the producers lose money on shows that don't do well, but my thought is...most of these producers must have the money to lose or they wouldn't be in the business. Just my thoughts.

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 1:09pm

It's totally dishonest, as far as I'm concerned. To be charged a surcharge on a ticket, without being told what it's for or if you want to participate in their strike fund reeks of many things, including greed. Any bets on whether any of the unused portion of the fund will be returned to the ticket buyers? My bet is, not a cent.

[MovieGuy1031]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 5:33pm

Thats rather disgusting, in my opinion, if i'm reading it right.

Let me try to hash this out for myself: I've seen upwards of 12 Broadway shows, and paid full price for all but one of those tickets... so does that mean for 11 of those tickets, these "surcharges" I have paid - including on the tickets for the 4 Broadway shows I have listed in my signature (two of which I won't be able to see...) - have actually FUNDED this strike?! Is this correct?

Someone please, correct me if i'm wrong...

[Mooo]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 5:38pm

You have absolutely helped fund this strike. Local 1's strike fund has come out of our 4% dues that we pay every week.

Updated On: 11/12/07 at 05:38 PM

[MovieGuy1031]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 5:40pm

Ummm.

*vomits*

Thats just... unthinkable!!! I can't believe this!

To think, I won't be able to see The Little Mermaid - the REASON i'm making the ten hour drive to the city from OHIO in the first place - next weekend because I have bought tickets to shows in the past! As well as "Cyrano de Bergerac"!!!

At least i'm not in as tight of a spot as others - I still get 4 of my 6 (see signature), but good GOD... I can't believe this!!!

[Bobby Maler]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 5:55pm

OMG, puh-leeze.

This is a ridiculous statement: "Anyone who bought a ticket over the past few years has contributed to the Leagues Strike Fund, whether they wanted to or not. Aren't surcharges a great thing? They can be put to all kinds of good uses".

According to what I've been reading on playbill, NY Times and elsewhere, this 'war chest' wasn't created as a result of "surcharges." On the contrary, producers contributed a few cents of each ticket towards this fund (money that would rightly have gone to the show). The only surcharges we audience members pay are surcharges that go to telecharge/ticketmaster and that $1.25 theatre restoration fee which goes to the landlords. This has nothing to do with those.

I think it was smart of the producers to do this. Individual producers cut their own personal potential profits for the greater good of establishing a fund for every show. They have been trying to contain costs on Broadway for years and knew this would be an ugly fight. I hope they stand strong in their fight. The future of Broadway (and certainly plays on Broadway) depends on it.

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 5:59pm

Check the Backstage Article at the link, it's right there in black and white. If it's untrue, why hasn't the League rushed out to refute it?

By the way, it takes more than "a few cents" per ticket to build a fund of $20million. That's a lots of "cents". Two billion to be exact. If they took, say two cents from every ticket they would have had to have sold 1 billion tickets. Last season's attendance was a record 12.3 million, the year before that 12 million, the year before that 11.5 million that's a total of 35.8 million, or using the 2 cent per ticket formula 71.6 million cents, quite a few short of the 2 billion cents needed for their 20 million strike fund.

Can you supply links to what you've been reading?

Updated On: 11/11/07 at 05:59 PM

[BwayJerry]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 6:24pm

No one has refuted it because it is true. And the money they saved from regular ticket sales with regular increases has not "funded the strike." What this "warchest" will do is make certain the shows that are in grave danger of closing, may stay open. It will pay for theatre rentals, it will pay for refunded tickets due to IATSE's choice to strike, and it will pay to keep offices open, and all the other payments producers STILL HAVE TO MAKE, despite the strike brought on by Local One.

If you think this is the cash going towards the producers making challenging picket signs, you're wrong.

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 6:46pm

"No one has refuted it because it is true. And the money they saved from regular ticket sales with regular increases has not "funded the strike."

Of course it's funding the strike, because without that strike fund, the producers would have to negotiate because they wouldn't have this $20 million buffer. You can parse it any way you want, but the fact is they took money from ticket holders as a surcharge to use to build a strike fund, without telling the purchaser what the surcharge was for, or without giving them the option of not contributing to it. That's dishonest no matter how you cut it.

[localonecrew]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 6:48pm

its a well known fact that the "restoration fee" that is charged on tickets IS the leagues strike war chest.

dont believe the producer flaks that have started posting here.

[Switz78]

Posted: 11/11/07 at 6:50pm

Why would local 1 mention the $450 premium prices when those are being charged by a producer who is not associated with the League and who does not have an expired contract? Nice way to make the general public think that the Producers they are negotiating with are selling tons of seat at that ludicrous price and not willing to fork over the money to the stagehands. Mel will get to keep making money, I wonder when that contract is up what IATSE will do.

[leko2]

Posted: 11/13/07 at 11:38am

I have no idea what show has premium seats for $450, but I do know that Wicked charges $250 for premium seats and Jersey Boys charges $351.50 for premium tickets.

As for what Local One will do when the contract is up at the Hilton Theater, I can only assume that they will enter into negotiations and try to reach an agreement with that building. Keep in mind that the contract that people are currently on strike about expired over the summer, not last week.

[BroadwayBound86]

Posted: 11/13/07 at 11:40am

I have no idea what show has premium seats for $450

Young Frankenstein

[Craig]

Posted: 11/13/07 at 11:49am

Isn't a bit of a chicken-egg argument though? If there were no "warchest" funds and shows closed because they couldn't maintain during a strike, then more people (from all sides) would be out of work and all sides would still lose. I'm not arguing pro or against - but it would appear from arguments presented here that the fund might be fueling then strike, but at the same time, it's saving the ultimate outcome as well, no?