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News & ArtsTuesday, December 13, 2011
Theater This Is What the Future Looks Like for Theater Unions, Part Two
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 9:40 AM
The standoff with the unions of New York City Opera continues and looks like it will sink the company once and for all:
The beleaguered company's future now hinges on its ability to make a deal with the orchestra and singers' unions, both of which have passed strike-authorization votes and are waging an aggressive campaign against the opera and its general manager...
If an agreement isn't reached, the unions—which say their new contract would basically turn them into freelancers earning just a fraction of what they used to take home—are pledging not just to strike, but to do everything in their power to put the opera out of business. Their anger is directed toward relative newcomer Mr. Steel, who was brought in to save the company in 2009. They see Mr. Steel as a high-earning outsider who is decimating their salaries and the opera they love.
At the very least, a walkout would imperil one of the opera's few productions this season, a weeklong run of La Traviata, scheduled to open Feb. 12 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The loss of momentum and ticket revenue, if that production is canceled, could be the last straw.
Obviously, every theater is its own institution with its own set of problems, but I keep saying this because I believe it: Theater is a drowning man, and its unions—in their current configuration, at least—are anvils disguised as life preservers.
Comte—that's your cue!
1
There are problems with theatrical unions, sure, but producers would take advantage actors et al if there were none. Artists would do poorer work if there were no hope of benefits and backstage would be a lot more dangerous without IATSE certified crew.
Brendan, I would love for you to actually back up your opinion with fact, collected from interviews and old fasioned reporting, not reports of a strike a continent away.
Brendan, I would love for you to actually back up your opinion with fact, collected from interviews and old fasioned reporting, not reports of a strike a continent away.
2
There is no way of forming an meaningful opinion of this story without numbers. Pull the 990s from Guidestar and work up earned-vs-donated and program-vs-operations trendlines. Otherwise false equivalencies and correlative- fallacies will prevent you from learning anything meaningful.
Unless union-baiting is the only way to get people to comment on theatre stories. Which might well be the case.
Unless union-baiting is the only way to get people to comment on theatre stories. Which might well be the case.
3
I cannot imagine why the union workers will not take a 90% decrease in pay and give up ALL benefits so Mr. Steel can keep earning his $324,000 ( or possibly higher) salary!. Plus the new contracts will allow the opera to use other non-union singers and musicians at any time! What is not to like there? Singers going from $40,000 a year with benefits to $4,000 a year with no benefits. So, they may need to take in a(nother) roommate?
4
people increasingly give less of a fuck about opera. the opera is a dying art. dying isn't pretty.
5
@ 2. I'm not union-baiting, just looking into my crystal ball. I predict theater unions will either do some serious reconfiguration or participate in the extinction of the big houses. But only time will tell.
@ 1. And I charge you to do the same, MJ. Can you demonstrate that non-union houses consistently produce crappier work and have more injuries than union houses?
I suspect the opposite is true...
@ 1. And I charge you to do the same, MJ. Can you demonstrate that non-union houses consistently produce crappier work and have more injuries than union houses?
I suspect the opposite is true...
6
Can someone please explain what a worker-owned cooperative is to these folks so that they can evolve beyond the obsolete business model that pits them endlessly in the opposing roles of owner and worker (aka - master and servant, lord and serf, etc.)?
Share ownership??? With the workers??? GASP! How un-American.
Indeed.
My apologies, please go on competing for the opportunity to exploit each other for the ultimate selfish gain of one from the loss of the other.
Excuse me, time to add another chapter to the cautionary tale called "America."
Share ownership??? With the workers??? GASP! How un-American.
Indeed.
My apologies, please go on competing for the opportunity to exploit each other for the ultimate selfish gain of one from the loss of the other.
Excuse me, time to add another chapter to the cautionary tale called "America."
8
Very insightful, as far as it goes.
But also American industry is a drowning man, and its unions—in their current configuration, at least—are anvils disguised as life preservers.
But also American industry is a drowning man, and its unions—in their current configuration, at least—are anvils disguised as life preservers.
9
I'll ask again, why does NYC need an additional opera company? They were planning a week-long run of an opera that the Met probably performs frequently? That is pretty pathetic and seems to indicate that company deserves to be taken about as seriously as Tacoma's opera company.
The only interesting thing about this story is that the performers would rather be unemployed than see a pay cut.
The only interesting thing about this story is that the performers would rather be unemployed than see a pay cut.
10
Yeah @8, how are 'Murkins supposed to compete with cheap Chinese slave-labor if'n good, kindly Capitalist corporate CEO's have to keep dealing with those damned infernal unions and their criminally unreasonable demands for fair wages, equitable benefits, safe working conditions, etc., etc.?
@9: chances are many of these musicians & singers would be able to pick up better paying gigs at other venues/orgs, if they weren't locked into a contract that paid them a fraction of their former salaries and no benefits (as the AGMA rep notes in the article, his members could make more by going on unemployment).
So, in this case, yeah, it actually does make more sense for them to be not employed at NYCO than to take the ridiculous 90% pay cut, especially while the guy asking them to take it pulls down a very healthy six-figure salary himself.
@9: chances are many of these musicians & singers would be able to pick up better paying gigs at other venues/orgs, if they weren't locked into a contract that paid them a fraction of their former salaries and no benefits (as the AGMA rep notes in the article, his members could make more by going on unemployment).
So, in this case, yeah, it actually does make more sense for them to be not employed at NYCO than to take the ridiculous 90% pay cut, especially while the guy asking them to take it pulls down a very healthy six-figure salary himself.
11
Any business that requires employees to have an otherwise-useless degree from the "right schools" as a condition of employment is going to have a hard time convincing those employees that it's in their best interests to accept a wage lower than the monthly payments on their student loans.
12
New York Theatre Workshop and New York City Opera fired their top technical theatre positions (NYTW in, I believe, 2007 or 2008, NYC Opera about a year and a half ago), and they tried to hire the assistants of the lving-wage paid production manager, technical director, etc., at a fraction of the cost. This pissed off a lot of people, and I do not know if NYTW has fully recovered. It is awful management and leadership.
The production manager of the NYTW at the time, after being fired for nothing other than being well-paid, left NYC and moved to Ohio where he started an art center type of thing with an old buddy of his.
A friend's husband had been the technical director or assistant technical director (I forget which) at New York City Opera back when they fired him and everyone else, then hired less experienced people for a fraction of the cost. He and his wife moved to Seattle, where they had lived for a while before moving to New York City to be close to his family, and in Seattle, he worked where? Yes, as the technical director or assistant technical director at Intiman Theatre. They had just gotten pregnant, and at the same time, his wife was laid off from her job at a law firm. They moved to D.C. where the husband now works as a T.D. at a prominent theater.
I am wondering when that will fall through because of mismanaged budgets, leadership failure. Or will it? I don't know.
This comment was going to be a lot longer, but I cut out the last 9/10ths of it. Boy, are we ALL glad for that.
The production manager of the NYTW at the time, after being fired for nothing other than being well-paid, left NYC and moved to Ohio where he started an art center type of thing with an old buddy of his.
A friend's husband had been the technical director or assistant technical director (I forget which) at New York City Opera back when they fired him and everyone else, then hired less experienced people for a fraction of the cost. He and his wife moved to Seattle, where they had lived for a while before moving to New York City to be close to his family, and in Seattle, he worked where? Yes, as the technical director or assistant technical director at Intiman Theatre. They had just gotten pregnant, and at the same time, his wife was laid off from her job at a law firm. They moved to D.C. where the husband now works as a T.D. at a prominent theater.
I am wondering when that will fall through because of mismanaged budgets, leadership failure. Or will it? I don't know.
This comment was going to be a lot longer, but I cut out the last 9/10ths of it. Boy, are we ALL glad for that.
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