Actors’ Equity Issues Strike Threat for Broadway National Tours (Exclusive)

Actors’ Equity has issued a strike threat against The Broadway League.

The union, which represents more than 51,000 stage managers and actors, has been bargaining with The Broadway League, which represents industry producers, presenters and general managers, since mid-January to create a new touring contract. Now, Actors’ Equity has authorized executive director Al Vincent Jr., its lead negotiator, to call a strike on all Broadway national tours, if he deems it necessary, after the union says it ran into roadblocks around a number of key issues.

“We thought we were making progress. Actually, we believed that perhaps we would reach a deal last week, but ultimately, we just were nowhere close in terms of what we know our members need and what the Broadway League was willing to offer,” Actors’ Equity President Kate Shindle told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday.

Equity’s priorities for the touring contract include increasing members’ per diem rates to cover the rising cost of food and housing on the road and wage increases. While the housing options differ depending on the contract, Shindle said that, in some cases, members have had to dip into their salaries to cover stays because the per diem isn’t enough.

The union is also asking for greater coverage for actors on tour, as well as for stage managers, many of whom do not have any coverage on tour if they are sick or injured. Coverage has been a key issue for Equity during the pandemic, as there is pressure to find a way for the show to still go on after members of the company are sidelined with COVID-19 or other illnesses.

For producers, all of these measures would increase their costs. The Broadway League said it had no comment on the negotiations or the strike threat at this time.

The two parties have two more bargaining days scheduled for April 11 and 12, and the hope is that they can reach an agreement and Equity can avoid a strike. However, Shindle said the union has been speaking with members on tour and readying them for the possibility of a job action.

As of Monday morning, 89 percent of members on tour had signed a strike pledge. Equity’s national council had voted to authorize a strike a few weeks ago.

“We don’t want to strike. We want to get to a deal. Everybody wants to continue working, especially after having so much time with no work at all. But we have to prepare for that, so that if we need to, we need to,” Shindle said. 

The new contract is meant to create one unified agreement that combines the touring production contracts, which cover bigger-budget shows, as well as short-engagement touring agreements, which cover shows with lower weekly sales guarantees. Equity members on tour have been working on an expired contract after the last extension ended Feb. 5. 

An open letter to the Broadway League, signed by more than 1,000 past and present members of touring productions, began circulating in late March, with Equity members asking the League for a “more sustainable” approach to touring.

“We are not asking to tour at an unreasonable level of luxury. We merely want conditions that enable us to do our work successfully without struggle,” the letter reads.

This comes after Actors’ Equity and The Broadway League reached an agreement in early December 2022 on a new three-year production contract, which governs Broadway shows and sit-down touring productions, after negotiating since September. While the contract was ratified, it was only approved by 57 percent of members. 

Many members had expressed discontent with that contract, and Equity leadership acknowledged that it did not achieve all of the union’s priorities.

“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.) I hope our members will stay engaged, especially if they are 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 clearly 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 said at the time. 

Actors’ Equity and LORT, or the League of Resident Theatres, which covers professional theaters across the country, reached an agreement on a new contract March 27.