Broadway Avoids Strike Through Tentative Deal With Cleaners Union

Actors on stilts join Broadway union workers during a demonstration to vote on whether to authorize a strike in 32 Broadway theatres ahead of the holidays season, in New York, December, 12, 2012. Broadway theater cleaners, porters and matrons gathered on New York's Times Square to decide on wether to authorize a strike, calling on theatre owners to pay higher wages and provide access to healthacare and other benefits. AFP PHOTO/Emmanuel DUNAND (Photo credit should read EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images)

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On Tuesday, June 30, the Broadway cleaners represented by 32BJ SEIU voted to authorize a strike. This did not mean they were about to shut down 30 Broadway shows, including recent Tony winners Schmigadoon! and Cats: The Jellicle Ball.

It just meant they could have.

As negotiations between the 32BJ SEIU and the Broadway League failed to produce a new contract before the previous agreement expired, union members voted to authorize a strike, meaning they could walk out at any moment.

But voting to authorize a strike, and actually going on strike, are two very different actions. While the Broadway cleaners authorized a strike in 2009, and voted on whether to in 2012, they have never actually gone on strike. Each time, they reached agreements before a strike became necessary.

A strike is very expensive for the producers.

It’s not just that the theaters would become less pleasant for the audience members. Per Actors Equity, if the performers are not provided with “safe and sanitary” working conditions, then they can’t perform. So if the authorization to strike transitioned to an active strike, then the shows could not go on.

Based on current figures, the theaters cleaned by members of 32BJ SEIU, specifically, the theaters owned by Shubert, ATG, Nederlander and Circle in the Square, gross around $30 million per week. When approaching negotiations, the Broadway League must balance the cost of meeting the union’s new contract terms against the loss of $30 million each week the strike would continue. Even allowing for the fact that contract costs would be spread over multiple years rather than one week, the scale of Broadway's weekly grosses illustrates why producers have a strong financial incentive to avoid a prolonged shutdown.

Members of 32BJ SEIU have sought, and tentatively secured, a new four-year agreement that provides increased wages, improvement to defined benefit pension, employer-paid family healthcare, improved paid leave, better working conditions, strengthened anti-discrimination policies and the addition of Juneteenth as a paid holiday.