The recently threatened strike by the American Federation of Musicians Local 802 against the League of American Theaters and Producers was averted just a day before a walkout would have taken place. The previous contract had recently run out and in contention were a number of items including cost-of-living increases, orchestra minimums, and job safety (physical and acoustical).
Read how it played out in the press:
March 7: BACK
STAGE: Musicians, League Unsettled on New Contract
March 13: BACK
STAGE: Musicians Union Considers Strike
March 13: PLAYBILL:
Broadway Musicians To Vote Mar. 14 on Strike Authorization
March 10: NY
POST: Strike Could Leave Audiences Humming Show Tunes
March 11: NY
POST: Strike Up The Canned?
March 14: PLAYBILL:
B'way Musician Strike Averted
March 14: AP/NY
TIMES: Strike Vote on Broadway Canceled
March 14: NY
TIMES: Broadway Musicians and Producers Come to Tentative Agreement
The threatened strike lead to a flurry of accusations, disapprovals, defenses, and polemical comments in the newsgroups and mailing lists. Considered most heinous was the Union's desired 12% cost-of-living salary increase over three years (the tentative agreement sets up a 21% increase over 5 years). The strongest attack was that this kind of increase did not take into account the overall good of the theatrical community. These attackers, however, are apparently unaware of the fact that the negotiations for the previous contract contained many concessions specifically because of the ailing state of Broadway at the time.
Here's some of what I've written in response to the accusations:
Think about what you're complaining about. One would *hope* that members of the pit are of the highest caliber, the top of their craft -- wouldn't one? And that quoted $1300 is non-negotiable; that's what the pit gets, whether it's the first violin or the fourth. (Okay, that's not taking a double into account -- but doubling is asking for more ability from a single player.) Anyone *on* the stage has the right to try to negotiate for more money. But there's no such thing as "star pit salaries." The pit salaries are basically at par with chorus contracts.
Look at salaries for "the best" in other professions; are you really insisting that Broadway pit musicians are worth no more than $68,000 (at best) a year?
So what you're saying pretty much is "We want the best sounding music we can get on Broadway. We want the best players. But we're not willing to pay for the best players; they can go somewhere else if they want more money, maybe Hollywood. We don't care. We'd rather see our ticket money go to paying for $100,000 worth of costumes for each chorus person. So I guess we're willing to accept more mediocre sound from Broadway. Kill incentive. Chase the best away to better paying areas. Oh, yeah, and forget about cost of living increases. And when we're through with the musicians let's move on to those other money-grubbing rip-off artists, the actors!"
Publicly discussions of your salary are kind of embarassing, aren't they. The greatest number of people seemed to be offended by the amount of money these musicians are paid -- which perhaps if the shoe were on the other foot you'd prefer not to have revealed about yourself!
If we bear in mind that these are supposed to (hopefully) be the best musicians available, and we leave out the fact that because of the vagaries of the theatre world in general musicians have little guarantee of a consistent source of income, we don't have to resort to comparisons with the salaries of first choice draft pick ballplayers to find income potential in the same range or higher.
With the help of the Bureau of Labor Statistics's 1998-1999 Occupational Outlook Handbook, here are a number of other occupations where it's possible to achieve a similar salary -- if you're at the top of your particular heap.
Nurse midwife - $70,100
Chemist - $71,000
Rabbi - $75,000
Automotive master mechanic - $100,000
Chief Operator, Power Plant - $72,000
Director of Auditing - $109,800
Commercial Lending Officer - $85,000
Real estate broker - $75,400
Insurance worker - $76,900
County Manager - $86,600
US Senator - $148,400
Hotel General Manager - $81,000
Staff Sergeant - $70,000
Ensign - $89,000
Security/loss prevention directors - $67,700
Highway safety inspector - $64,190 (average of high salaries)
Full-time University professor - $65,400 (average of high salaries)
And according to ZDNet's Salary Zone (Internet Professionals), the average salary of internet computing consultants is almost $100,000 in the Northeast region (which would include Broadway, I guess).
C U @ the theatre!
Originally published at Suite101.com Theatre, 3/17/98
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