Many shows on Broadway are cancelled as stagehands went on strike on Saturday, with pickets going up outside theatres around Times Square in New York City.
"It is a sad day for Broadway, but we must remain committed to achieving a fair contract," said Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of the League of American Theatres and Producers.
Stagehands picket Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical on Saturday morning in New York. The strike has shut down more than two dozen Broadway plays and musicals.
(Diane Bondareff/Associated Press)
"Our goal is simple: to pay for workers we need and for work that is actually performed."
Tickets for Saturday's shows will be reimbursed. Otherwise, credits are also being issued.
On Thursday, after three months of negotiations, the Local One union authorized its members to walk off the job. Workers were told Friday by its parent union to strike, reported the New York Times.
Local One representatives declined to comment about the walkout.
The 3,000-member stagehands union has between 350 and 500 members working on Broadway productions at any given time.
Eight productions with separate agreements with the union will go on as usual: Young Frankenstein, Mary Poppins, Xanadu, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Mauritius, Pygmalion, The Ritz and Cymbeline.
Off-Broadway shows and productions appearing in theatres run by nonprofit organizations will also continue.
"My heart goes out to these people," said Vicki Michel, who was in town along with her husband from Puyallup, Wash. "I support the unions."
The couple discovered they would not be seeing the shows they had tickets for: Grinch, Hairspray and Mamma Mia!
Instead, they managed to garner tickets to Young Frankenstein and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
The two sides have been wrangling over work rules and staffing requirements. At issue are new rules for stagehands involving how many can work on a particular show and for how long, as well as what duties they can perform.
This strike could hobble Broadway during its most lucrative month of the year: December. The week between Christmas and New Year's Day is traditionally the busiest.
The Times report said League members predicted the strike would last only a few days, while union members felt it could last for weeks.
In March 2003, more than a dozen Broadway shows went dark after a four-day strike by musicians, costing the city millions of dollars.
With files from the Associated PressRelated
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