"When we say there are 'minimums,' it's for our protection
and the safety of the theatres that we don't believe are their priorities. Their
priorities are the bottom-line. When we have a piece that requires so much
weight and so much danger backstage. As the shows get bigger, they get harder.
I have to deal with the protection of our members. When there is a piece that
requires four-members to be moved, they want to do it with three. We can't
count on them and their requirements for the bottom-line."
"We know what we need to achieve and we're willing to get
there. There's a price to pay. Right now, we're not willing to pay that
price. You want us to live with a strike
for three or four weeks? What they're implementing is something we'd have to
live with for three or four decades. We have a future to protect for our
children. We have a future to protect
for everyone we have responsibilities for. The future for the other unions as
well."
"We are 8% the price of a ticket. They raise their ticket
prices to $450 dollars, we don't get a raise. If we have one theatre with a
huge amount of stagehands and that show becomes a hit – we get paid the same of
a show that isn't a hit. We can't apologize for the product. We want every show
to succeed. We're providing a service. We shouldn't get less from one theatre
than another theatre because the show is not a good product."
Bill Dennison
representing Local 802:
"I believe the responsibility for this work-stoppage on
Broadway rests clearly in the hands of The League. You're dealing with a Local
with an over one-hundred year history of never striking on Broadway. They've
always found a way to reach an agreement with The League. What's different this
time is you have a group on the other side of the table who are determined to
turn the theatre-business into a profit-making machine…"
"Our worry is that they are driving this industry over a
cliff in the search for greater and greater profits at the expense of those who
work in the theatres. We are concerned about safety! Our members work in the
bottom of the theatre, in the orchestra pit. Those of you who have been in
these theatres, you know the kind of equipment that is moving around backstage,
that is flying over our heads. We want to make sure those theatres are safe and
the confidence we have in the Local One members to run that theatre is what makes
our members feel secure."
"Four years ago the stagehands were standing side-by-side
with us in our effort to protect live theatre and live music on Broadway. We
succeeded because of the solidarity of the other unions. Not because the other side
of the table was trying to protect what we were fighting to protect. I believe that the unions on Broadway, all of
us are going to stand side-by-side with the stagehands until this is solved in
a way until the members of that proud union are satisfied. And we will continue
to be there with them."
John Connolly
Executive Director of Actors' Equity Association:
"We are not riff-raff. Whether you're moving a piece of
scenery or controlling a sophisticated digital sound board. Whether you're
dancing or acting or moving wardrobe from one side of the stage to the
other. This is a highly sophisticated collaborative
art that is peopled by professional workers from top to bottom."
"When you have an industry on Broadway where you jam tons
and tons of 21st century technology into 19th century buildings, it takes
skill, it takes courage, it takes consistency and it takes professionalism and
collaboration and that's what makes the magic of the theatre."
"The theatres are not the four-walls on these many streets.
The theatres are not the management offices. The theatres are not the
advertisements in The New York Times.
The theatres are the men and women here today working with the audiences who
come to see the work we do. We regret
that these theatres are closed. We are sorry that we are not where we want to
be; on-stage entertaining our audiences eight shows or more a week. That's what
we do. That's what we live for."
"We didn't shut the theatres. We didn't make $100 ticket
prices. We didn't say it is our mission to refashion the economics of the
theatre industry. The employers did that. And while they were misquoting the
actual wages of real people are, in their news conference yesterday, I did not
notice one single person in that news conference tell you how much they make!"
"To get these theatres back on-stage where they belong, and
these men and women backstage where they belong, and the orchestras in the pit
where they belong is to sit down in an honorable fashion and negotiate with
honor. Not walk out of negotiations on October 10 and proclaim that you're
going to impose your terms. That is not negotiation."
"I think it's remarkable here in the United States
today that what seems weird to some people is that working people will actually
stand-up and defend themselves."
