While a large part of the technical staff of the Metropolitan Opera has been out of work since December and has just started wage negotiations, the union that represents them had the idea of launching a virtual picket line online in order to allow anyone who wishes to show their support.
The stage workers’ union refuses a 30% wage cut
A virtual picket line is the original idea launched by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), which represents more than 800 employees (artistic and technical staff) of the Met Opera, from carpenters to makeup artists in through lighting technicians, ticket inspectors or video technicians.
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Deprived of work (locked out) since December, this category of staff is the last not to have reached an agreement with the management of the Met which proposes a salary reduction of 30%, while others like the choristers , solo singers, dancers, directors, assistant directors, managers and salaried artists and musicians have had or will be guaranteed to see this drop in income limited to less than 15%.
Tweets aside, we are prepared to create and implement innovative digital tactics to win for workers.
Our Interactive Virtual Picket line in support of locked-out @MetOpera stagehands has seen hundreds participate, with more joining the line each day.https://t.co/umhViGrFlm
— IATSE // #PROAct (@IATSE) June 23, 2021
Negotiations between Met management and IATSE did not begin until June 14
While the technical production of the 3 operas performed by the Met since the reopening in mid-May has been subcontracted by independent workshops or foreign production companies, the 1st meetings between the institution’s management and the IATSE did not were only started since June 14, just 2 months before the start of the new season in September.
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If employee protests have multiplied in front of the Met building in New York, IATSE officials had the idea of launching a virtual picket line so as to allow everyone, staff, supporters, fans of opera, to support their fight. You just have to go to the site MetOperaPicketLine.com choose and print a proposed protest panel (#WeAreTheMet, No Opera Without Workers !, End the Lockout !…) Or invent one, take a photo with it and then send it by email so that it can be digitally processed to allow participants to appear virtually in front of Lincoln Center. In a press release, the union organization specifies that this virtual picket line is intended to inform the general public but that it does not in any way call for a strike or a boycott of the Met.
Philippe Gault
Retropen the news of Classic
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