Producers of the seven shows in those darkened theatres — the Brooks Atkinson, Gershwin, Lunt-Fontanne, Marquis, Minskoff, Nederlander, Neil Simon, Palace and Richard Rodgers — have also joined in the suit, which claims the union has been striking the Nederlander houses only to pressure the League of American Theatres and Producers to make a settlement with the union, which makes the strike "an unlawful secondary boycott."

The Nederlander Organization is suing the union for $35 million in damages, reports the New York daily.

The Nederlanders had been observers in the lengthy pre-strike negotiations between Local One and the League. Although the Nederlander Organization is a member of the League, the company had its own (also-expired) contract with the union. The Nederlanders and the union had agreed that they would more or less abide by whatever contract the League and the union eventually agreed upon.

Because of that agreement, the Nederlanders did not begin implementing rules from the rejected contract on the union last month when the other theatre owners did.

The Nederlanders did, however, send a letter to the union prior to the union's Oct. 21 strike authorization vote. Hershel Waxman, Vice President of Labor Relations of the Nederlander Organization, sent the hand-delivered letter to Local One President James Claffey Jr., which read, "Should Local One engage in a strike against the League, it would be in Nederlander's best interest to lock out the Local One bargaining unit so that the entire theatre industry achieves the best possible terms in any new agreement with Local One." In the end the Nederlanders did not lock out the union, but the union did — and continues to — strike the nine Nederlander theatres.