Best foot forward

Day in and day out, we the men and women of Local 51, go and do the job that we get paid for very well. We need to maintain a certain standard to justify the higher wage and better conditions that we have worked so hard for. When asked to present ourselves in various venues, we should follow the guidelines for appearance and attitude. These days are as much corporate as theatrical and our clientele in both are usually high profile and high maintenance.
It saddens me to hear about valued members who flaunt these reasonable requests and force the steward or Business Agent to sit them down for such meaningless reasons.
We work in business to pick and choose our calls and when we take a call and decide that we need to 'be our ownselves', at the expense of our brothers and sisters, it must be brought to all's attention is this exactly the argument we get from our producers about freezing or lowering our earning capability.
Feel free to express yourself because we work in a creative business, but remember it is a business and that the bottom line is not always what a great job you could do but how you do it and with what kind of attitude.

Musical Chairs

Let's see, since the start of the quite a few positions have had changes. The latest being the assistant head carpenter for the Opera has, allegedly, given notice to join the Jackson Five, or the Houston Symphony stage crew. Who will be moving next? Maybe someone to the 'Too Live Crew' Nation camp...
Speaking of the Opera, rumor has it Opera Vision might be returning due to demand by the subscribers, which would be great for the Local.
We have talented video techs who would love to be back at the Wortham but it will take the new management to make that happen. Maybe a write in campaign would help from the patrons.

And last but not least, a certain Executive Board member took a call and had to leave early. Again.

Hot news flash!

Looks like the waiting is over at the Hobby is over.
It seems a local sound man, who has taken calls with the Union but had a full time gig elsewhere, has been offered the job. Many of the Union brothers were a bit upset that some of our more senior and qualified members were passed over, again, for this job. More upsetting is the feeling that one of own pulled a fast one and got someone in who will allow the local head the chance to 'sub' for the new hire. Impressed to see that the local sound man ran this play with such professed innocence. He might have a future in show business...

Producers and Union Move Closer in Contract Talks

Producers and Union Move Closer in Contract Talks

By Andrew Gans
06 Oct 2007

A concession by Local One, the stagehands union, may expedite the approval of a new three-year contract with the League of American Theatres and Producers.

Bloomberg.com reports that during ongoing negotiations between the two sides on Oct. 4, the stagehands union yielded to producers about how many workers must be employed during the load-in of a new show.

The load-in refers to the period when the sets, costumes and equipment for a new show are loaded into a Broadway theatre. The process takes a few weeks, and requires by contract what producers consider a large number of stagehands working for a set number of hours. Both parties have accused the other side of greed, with producers demanding that stagehands only get paid for actual work, the stagehands pointing out Broadway's recent record-breaking profits.

According to Bloomberg.com, the union may allow producers more flexibility during the set-up of a new show if the hourly wage of the workers used are increased. Any agreement, however, would still need to be approved by members of the union.

The concession by the Union came after a long day of negotiations when, according to Bloomberg.com, the Union realized that producers were willing to allow a shutdown of Broadway rather than continue with the long-standing work rules.

The League sent out a statement at 12:30 AM Oct. 6 saying, "Talks between The League of American Theatres and Producers and Local One concluded a short while ago. The parties have agreed to meet again on Tuesday, October 9."

CSI

What is the fascination about who writes this blog ? I mean, c'mon, the purpose of this is to give vent to the frustration of watching people, who supposedly are in solidarity, manipulate the system for their own benefit. But sometimes it just to poke a bee's nest and get people talking and laughing!
Get a sense of humor and get a life. Better still, get involved...

Busy Week for most...

From everything we have been told this week, everybody is working one, two, and sometimes three calls a day. People are going from one job to another, day to day.
Yes, it is very busy for all of us and we have to stay focused on work.
Except it seems for some of members of our organization, who have nothing better to do that to find out who writes this blog. Quit worrying about the author and pay attention to the points being made. Maybe if the Office spent as much time policing itself and less time whining about how tough 'their' jobs are, maybe we can be a better local. It's STAGEHANDS, not CHAIRSITTERS!

New kid on the block?

Forwarded to the author in an email, is a Craigslist employment opportunity for 'production' people. Hope the Office is paying attention and finding out as much as possible. Maybe we can enter into a 'non compete' understanding with them, that will work as all well as all our other 'agreements'...