| Broadway talks to resume this weekend
NEW YORK (AP) -- Striking stagehands and Broadway producers are going back to the bargaining table, less than a week before the start of the lucrative Thanksgiving holiday weekend when most plays and musicals experience a box-office bonanza. Negotiations will resume this weekend "at an undisclosed place and time," the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the League of American Theatres said Wednesday. "No comment from either organization will be issued until further notice," both sides said in a joint statement. Was there pressure to return to the talks before Thanksgiving, when the city is filled with visitors here for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the start of the Christmas shopping season? "It was a factor," said Norman Samnick, an entertainment lawyer who specializes in labor relations for Bryan Cave LLP.
Broadway stagehands, producers mum on resumed talks
NEW YORK (AP) - Broadway's stagehands and theater producers have resumed contract talks -- but they're still not talking publicly about how the negotiations are going. The two sides met yesterday at an undisclosed location. It's been more than a week since a walkout by the stagehands union shut down more than two dozen plays and musicals. Pressure to settle the contract dispute is increasing as the profitable Thanksgiving holiday week approaches and losses mount for the shuttered shows. They include some of Broadway's biggest hits, such as "Wicked," "Jersey Boys," "The Phantom of the Opera," "The Lion King" and "Mamma Mia!" Stagehands have been working without a contract since the end of July. Negotiations have focused on work rules - how many stagehands are required to open a Broadway show and keep it running.
Striking Broadway stagehands and producers set to resume talks today
NEW YORK -- Facing the lucrative Thanksgiving holiday week, striking Broadway stagehands and theater producers go back to the bargaining table today in an effort to settle their protracted labor dispute that has shut down more than two dozen plays and musicals. Further spurring the talks between Local 1 and the League of American Theatres and Producers will be the presence at the negotiations of two high-powered observers: Robert Johnson, a veteran Disney executive with extensive labor-negotiating experience, and Tom Short, the head of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the parent union of Local 1. Short has sat in before, but Johnson, who will be sitting on the management side, hasn't. "[Johnson] is well-respected by labor all over the country," an official from another union, who has knowledge of the negotiations but declined to be identified because the official was not authorized to comment, said Friday.
Broadway stagehands go on strike
NEW YORK -- From "Wicked" to "The Phantom of the Opera," from "Mamma Mia!" to "Rent," most shows did not go on as Broadway stagehands walked off the job, shutting down more than two dozen plays and musicals. It was a dramatic, uncertain day in the Times Square area for disappointed theatergoers, who mingled on the streets Saturday while striking Local One stagehands picketed in an orderly fashion behind barricades and declined to talk to reporters. The union had no official comment on the walkout. No new negotiations have been scheduled between Local One and the League of American Theatres and Producers, so the outlook for a quick settlement looks murky. The two sides have been in contentious negotiations for more than three months. Much of their disagreements involve work rules and staffing requirements, particularly rules governing the expensive process of loading in and setting up a show.
Broadway Talks To Resume This Weekend
NEW YORK (AP) — Striking stagehands and Broadway producers are going back to the bargaining table, less than a week before the start of the lucrative Thanksgiving holiday weekend when most plays and musicals experience a box-office bonanza.
Negotiations will resume this weekend "at an undisclosed place and time," the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and the League of American Theatres said Wednesday. "No comment from either organization will be issued until further notice," both sides said in a joint statement.
Was there pressure to return to the talks before Thanksgiving, when the city is filled with visitors here for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the start of the Christmas shopping season?
"It was a factor," said Norman Samnick, an entertainment lawyer who specializes in labor relations for Bryan Cave LLP.
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