NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — The union representing Broadway’s musicians reached a tentative labor settlement with industrial producers on Thursday, averting a potentially crippling strike that will have silenced almost two dozen musicals.
The American Federation of Musicians Native 802 — which represents 1,200 musicians — had threatened to strike in the event that they didn’t have a brand new contract by the morning, after going into mediation Wednesday.
Early Thursday, the union mentioned it had struck a tentative deal that features wage will increase and contribution will increase to the well being fund.
“This three-year settlement gives significant wage and well being profit will increase that can protect essential entry to healthcare for our musicians whereas sustaining the robust contract protections that empower musicians to construct a gentle profession on Broadway,” AFM Native 802 President Bob Suttmann mentioned in an announcement.
The 23 exhibits that might have gone silent ranged from megahits like “Hamilton” and “The Lion King” to newcomers like “Queen of Versailles” and “Chess,” that are nonetheless in previews. Performs wouldn’t have been robotically impacted.
It was the second Broadway labor deal in lower than per week. Labor tensions had already appeared cool after Actors’ Fairness Affiliation — which represents over 51,000 members, together with singers, actors, dancers and stage managers — announced a new three-year agreement with producers over the weekend.
Members of each unions had been working below expired contracts. The musicians’ contract expired on Aug. 31, and the Fairness contract expired Sept. 28.
The well being of Broadway — as soon as very a lot unsure due to the coronavirus pandemic that shut down theaters for some 18 months — is now excellent, at the least when it comes to field workplace. It has been an extended street again from the times when theaters were shuttered and the long run appeared bleak, however the 2024-2025 season took in $1.9 billion — the highest-grossing season in recorded historical past, overtaking the pre-pandemic earlier excessive of $1.8 billion in the course of the 2018-2019 season.
The unions pointed to the monetary well being of Broadway to argue that producers might afford to up pay and advantages for musicians and actors. Producers, represented by The Broadway League, had countered that the restored well being of Broadway might be endangered by potential ticket worth will increase to accommodate the calls for.
The newest main strike on Broadway was in late 2007, when a 19-day walkout by stagehands dimmed the lights on greater than two dozen exhibits and value producers and town thousands and thousands of {dollars} in misplaced income.
On Wednesday, three U.S. senators from New York and New Jersey — Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker and Andy Kim — wrote to either side, urging them to “take part in good religion negotiations and continued communication.” The senators famous that Broadway helps almost 100,000 jobs and is “an important cornerstone within the financial well-being of surrounding companies and sectors, together with hospitality, retail and transportation.”
