STRIKE!

Broadway Blues
... how the stagehands turned Grinch

I had matinee tickets to go see Seafarer. Argh! The stage hands decided to strike thus closing over twenty Broadway shows leaving tourist and locals stranded. Boy, there were a lot of disappointed kids from Oklahoma to California upset they were missing such classics as The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and The Little Mermaid. Sadly the much panned Young Frankenstein and Mary Poppins were not affected. Of course I support the right to strike, and I even support the Screen Writers Guild for their efforts to force corporations to share in the internet revenue profits that are recently big dollar advertisement boons to execs at large entertainment conglomerates. But I'm not feeling much sympathy for the stage hands. The press reports they often have steady work (unlike more writers) and make $100,000 annually. Some sign up for the controversial jobs of movers and mopers and make an additional $50K. These are the jobs the producers are protesting - saying they are forced to keep these positions on the books even if no person fills the job or if it requires 5 minutes to 3 hours of work - the person get paid in full regardless of need. Now the stagehands claim it is the equivalent to hiring an actor for only the time they're on stage or a FDNY fireman for only the time they put out a fire - but one could argue that actors and firefighters aren't double paid - once for their primary job and then for a smaller job done during the same working period. But I could be wrong. At that pay, I'm thinking of joining the Stagehands job market, but I might have to work for the evil empire Disney.