IATSE Warns that The Met's Season May Not Happen Until Worker Lockout Ends

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the union that represents The Metropolitan Opera's workers, is warning that the Met's season may not go on until the lockout of opera workers ends.

IATSE is stating in a new advertisement that "unless the Met's management returns to the bargaining table and treats workers fairly, there will be no opera in 2021."

As BroadwayWorld previously reported in December, The Met locked out its stagehands amidst a labor dispute between the company and its union.

The Met offered to begin paying many employees up to $1,500 a week if their unions agree to long-term contracts that include a 30 percent cut in pay, but workers believed this to be unfair. This is when Peter Gelb, The Met's general manager, said that stage technicians and shop crew members represented by IATSE Local 1 would have their wages cut, and be unable to continue production of sets at Met facilities for the 2021 season.

The Met's new season is scheduled to begin in September. Gelb has demanded that IATSE members take a 30 percent take-it-or-leave-it pay cut that would remain in effect long after the pandemic ends.

"Very few people were working at The Met in this period, barely affecting the bottom line," said IATSE International President Matt Loeb. "Gelb is cruelly and cynically using the COVID-19 crisis as leverage to stab his workers in the back, cutting off their wages and healthcare payments during the pandemic and putting the future of the opera company in jeopardy."

IATSE members who work as stagehands, ticket sellers, costumers, lighting designers and technicians, set designers and make-up artists, along with other dedicated Met employees, are still unwilling to accept Gelb's offer.

The union is launching a lobbying effort in Washington, Albany and New York to ask lawmakers to exclude The Metropolitan Opera or any other employer in the performing arts from stimulus or arts funds if they have locked out their workers.

"Monies for the arts should not be used to beat up on artists and to fund $1,500-per-hour, union-busting consultants," said IATSE Local 1 President James Claffey Jr. "This would be a misappropriation of funds."

"We also know that lovers of opera and patrons of the arts have many choices as to where to spend their money," Claffey Jr. added. "At this time we're asking them to withhold contributions to The Met until management returns to the bargaining table and our members are returned to work."

The union also is briefing government officials of The Met's rumored plans to outsource set-design work to shops in Russia and other countries and of the inappropriateness of using funds designated to support the arts community here at home.

IATSE has set up a website at www.MetOperaNews.com to keep operagoers, Met subscribers and the general public informed. The union also has made it possible to receive updates by visiting the website and registering.

"It's time to return to negotiations and settle this matter," Loeb said. "The Met cannot operate without our people. If the curtain doesn't go up, it would be a real opera tragedy."