Broadway has averted a strike that could have done serious damage to an already challenged industry.
Early Thursday, after an 18-hour bargaining session aided by a mediator, the labor union representing musicians reached a tentative deal with the Broadway League, a trade association for producers and theater owners. The union, the American Federation of Musicians Local 802, had threatened to walk off the job later Thursday if no contract agreement was reached.
“United in solidarity, Local 802 Broadway musicians are thrilled to announce that we reached a tentative agreement at 4:30 a.m. with the Broadway League that will avert a strike scheduled to begin later today,” the union’s president, Robert Suttmann, said in a statement. “This three-year agreement provides meaningful wage and health benefit increases that will preserve crucial access to health care for our musicians while maintaining the strong contract protections that empower musicians to build a steady career on Broadway.”
The union declined to offer specifics, saying that it needed to notify its members first. The League did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The settlement comes just five days after the League reached a separate tentative contract agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the labor union that represents performers and stage managers. On Wednesday, that union shared details of its agreement with its members, and The New York Times obtained a copy. The agreement said that actors and stage managers would receive a 3 percent salary increase each year of a three-year deal, and that the League’s contributions to the workers’ health fund would increase significantly.
Both unions had threatened to strike. And while a disruption is still theoretically possible — both contracts must be approved by union members — it is now seen as unlikely.
Equity’s national council has already recommended ratification of its proposed contract to its members. Just under 4,000 Equity members — those who have worked on Broadway since 2019 — are eligible to vote; the voting process is to begin on Friday.
The executive board of the musicians’ union must now consider whether to recommend ratification of its deal; if it does, just over 1,200 members of that union will be asked to vote on that contract.
The last musicians’ contract was an unusually short 18-month pact that expired Aug. 31; the last Equity contract expired Sept. 28. It is uncommon for the two contracts to be negotiated simultaneously, and the juxtaposition left the industry particularly vulnerable to a stoppage.
Members of both unions were seeking — and say they won — higher pay and more substantial contributions from producers to worker health insurance costs.
There were other sources of tension, too, particularly around rising absenteeism rates since the Covid pandemic. Equity’s message to its members said the deal would allow “reasonable escalating consequences” for “repeated absences without good and sufficient cause.”
Resolution of the labor issues will be welcome news for Broadway, which can ill afford a disruption. Attendance is finally nearing prepandemic levels, but rising production costs mean that few new musicals recoup their investments. Only three of the 46 new musicals that have opened since the pandemic have made money.
There are currently 32 shows running on Broadway, and they were seen by 277,744 people during the week that ended Oct. 19. The top-grossing show that week was “Hamilton,” which has been setting records thanks to the return of Leslie Odom Jr., a star from its original cast. Behind it were “Wicked,” which has been boosted by the marketing campaigns for a two-part film adaptation, and “The Lion King,” a beloved Disney title that is still going strong after 28 years.
The most recent Broadway strike, in 2007, was called by the stagehands’ union and lasted for 19 days. The musicians last went on strike in 2003; Equity members last struck in 1968.
Michael Paulson is the theater reporter for The Times.
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