Broadway Producers and Actors Union Continue the Dialogue

By Robert Simonson
07 Jul 2004

Actors' Equity and Broadway producers continue their current contract negotiations July 7, following a full day of talks on Tuesday.

Both sides returned to the negotiating table on July 6 following a nine-day hiatus. The two sides had not met since talks broke down during the final hours of Sunday June 27. Each side said the other walked out of talks. The new set of talks effectively extends the current contract, which expired on June 27 at midnight.

According to the New York Post, both parties were urged to reconvene by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg played an important role in ended the musicians' union strike, which shut down Broadway for four days in March 2003.

The major points of the new Production Contract between actors and stage managers and the producers of Broadway and touring shows are health-care issues and non-union tours. A sorer point, however, may be the Equity demand that League producers uniformly pledge to cease licensing Broadway shows to companies that create non-union tours. According to the Post, producers have bristled as this idea, which they consider unacceptable interference in business decisions that should be theirs alone to make.