Members of the Actors’ Equity union have won new contract negotiations, which will be in place until September 2025. The new contract includes minimum salary increases in each year of the three-year agreement, better paid sick leave benefits, a decrease in weekly rehearsal hours after a show opens, and one additional personal day off for everyone, as well as two fewer 10 out of 12 rehearsals (a practice that occurs the week before opening in which actors and stage managers are scheduled for 10 hours of work and two hours of break time in a day).
During the voting period, many actors expressed their discontent with the agreement on social media and said they planned to vote no. “The concerns raised included the addition of a new “short-term actor” provision, which allows for an actor to be hired for less than a week of performances, unlike the existing position of a vacation swing, as well as provisions which still allow for a swing to cover up to five parts, as Shindle alluded to.”
“The Broadway League is the largest group of employers for Equity members, and coming to our first agreement after the pandemic shutdown and subsequent reopening is a major step,” said Equity Executive Director Al Vincent, Jr., the lead negotiator. “This was not an easy negotiation, and over 21 bargaining sessions, everyone on both sides had to make difficult choices. I am proud of the Equity team’s work to achieve a contract that makes significant strides on a number of issues that have been on our agenda for decades. And this agreement also lays important foundations that we will build on in negotiations.”
“We went into this negotiation with an ambitious package reflecting the priorities of actors and stage managers working this contract,” said Kate Shindle, the Actors’ Equity Association president. “While we certainly didn’t achieve all of them, we did make progress: fewer 10/12s, fewer rehearsal hours after opening, significant EDI advances, paid sick leave for the entire Equity company, more stage manager preproduction, increases in some chorus increments and our highest overall salary gains in decades.
“We will need to continue to build on this work. (For example, while we achieved our first-ever cap on split tracks for swings, five is still too many.) Our members will stay engaged, especially if asked to do anything that makes them feel unsafe. We are now prepping for bargaining both Touring and LORT, which have significant worker overlap with Production. The voices of mobilized actors and stage managers made this a better deal than it otherwise would have been. That same activism and solidarity will also be crucial for these upcoming negotiations,” Shindle continued.
Actor Dani Spieler wrote,
“Since reopening, everyone has been saying how above and beyond the swings and understudies have gone by performing multiple roles at a time or going on at a moment’s notice for a track they don’t cover. I was hopeful the support would be there to make a significant change in providing adequate coverage and a safe work environment, which have been issued long before the pandemic. No one person should have to do the job of [four] people.”
– Excerpt from an article for The Hollywood Reporter by Caitlin Huston. Read the full article here.
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