Metropolitan Opera reaches deal with stagehands

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By KAREN MATTHEWS

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City's Metropolitan Opera reached a deal early Wednesday with its stagehands and said it expects to avert a lockout by reaching agreements with the remaining unions.

The opera company said rehearsals will continue and the season will open as scheduled Sept. 22 with a new production of Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro."

Met general manager Peter Gelb demanded pay cuts of about 17 percent, citing skyrocketing production costs and shrinking audiences. Union members countered that such a radical move was unwarranted on a $2.8 million deficit against a $326 million budget — while they say Gelb wasted many millions on failed productions.

Details of the agreement with the stagehands were not disclosed, but Matthew Loeb, president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, said the deal includes mandatory cost reductions from management and an independent monitor to track budget performance.

FULL story at link.



FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2014, file photo, pedestrians walk in front of the Metropolitan Opera house at New York's Lincoln Center. New York's Metropolitan Opera has reached tentative labor deals with two of its largest unions while negotiations continue with 10 more unions in hopes of averting a lockout, the federal Mediation and Conciliation Service announced early Monday, Aug. 18, 2014. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140820/us-met-labor-dispute-f4c6dc8bbc.html

[leftynyc]

1. Awesome

I don't have opera tickets until November but was closely watching this as there are many New Yorkers who would not cross a picket line.