Talks Resume Again in Broadway Strike

Photo courtesy of the New York Daily News

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON of the New York Times

Published: November 26, 2007

Talks in the Broadway strike resumed yesterday between the league representing the theater owners and producers and the union representing the stagehands.

Around 8:30 p.m., Bruce Cohen, a spokesman for the union, emerged from the negotiations and said that both sides were working very hard and that it would probably be a long night. As of 5:30 a.m., in th 19th hour of negotiations, they were still meeting.

The talks to end the strike, which has left 26 theaters dark for 16 days, were being held at the law firm of Proskauer Rose.

Yesterday was the first time the two sides had held formal negotiations since talks broke down the night of Nov. 18. Shortly after those talks ended, the producers announced that all shows affected by the strike would stay dark through Thanksgiving week.

The city comptroller’s office has said that the strike, which began Nov. 10, costs the city $2 million a day, but officials from the League of American Theaters and Producers place the cost much higher. Last year, Broadway pulled in around $42 million in grosses over Thanksgiving Week and the week before.

Some of the main issues the two sides were bargaining over involved the rules governing shows that are up and running. The league and the union, Local 1 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, were close to a compromise last week on the rules that apply to stagehands during the load-in, the costly, lengthy period when a production is being set up.