COMMENTARY
As of Saturday November 10, 2007 many of the lights in front of the theaters of old Broadway in New York City are dimmed as Local One of the Theater Employees Union has hit the bricks. The issues, as is seemingly always the case these days, is the attempt, in this case by the theater owners alliance, to get more productivity out of its employees, here the stage hands, for no extra pay. While the New York legitimate theater is hardly the mainstream of the struggle in the fight against the effects of ‘globalization’ even such local battles reflect the very hard drive of international capitalism to win the race to the bottom of the wage scale. Enough.
A couple of comments. In my youth I did yeoman’s work as an unpaid stage hand for various amateur theatrical productions produced by friends, among them a number of works by Bertolt Brecht. Now I will not be a philistine and argue the importance of the stage hands as against the cast but if my experience was any indication these people desire their paid, and then some.
I note from the report of the strike in the New York Times that no all the theaters are closed. Apparently some theaters have different contracts with Local One and are therefore open. This appears to be a strike that will last a while as both sides are far apart. Why I ask are some theaters open? It would seem to me that the beginning of wisdom here in a localized situation that one contract should cover all theaters. Right? Labor, and this after all is what we are talking about, needs to bring as many forces as it can to bear in a strike situation. This is not the case here. Make a note of it for the future, though. Also in the Times article I noted that the theaters in off and off-off Broadway are open. These units need to be organized pronto. In the meantime –Victory to the Stage Hands!
No comments:
Post a Comment