Philadelphia IATSE Local 8 Strikes at Philadelphia Theatre Company for MLK, Jr. Show

Philadelphia Theatre Company's union stagehands, members of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 8, are on strike at the theatre company, which planned to begin performances of Katori Hall's The Mountaintop on Friday, January 18. The stagehands walked out Wednesday, January 16.

The stagehands, previously nonunion, opted in September for union representation in negotiations with PTC management. The theatre and the union negotiated an interim labor agreement in October, which expired in November. Since then, members of the PTC management team and the union have been in ongoing negotiations, PTC's managing director Shira Beckerman says.

PTC is seeking to continue its planned production of The Mountaintop, Hall's two-person drama about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., using replacement workers if necessary. The theatre announced The Mountaintop will definitely premiere on Friday. If the theatre uses replacement workers for this show and the following shows this weekend, audiences and actors will likely pass by a picket line.

Frank Keel, a spokesman for Local 8, says "The management of the Philadelphia Theatre Company is guilty of hypocrisy in putting on a show about the last days of Dr. Martin Luther King -- a man who lived and died for the cause of social justice -- at the same time they are threatening the job security of the men and women who make the theatre work," he says. "IATSE Local 8 is walking in Dr. King's footsteps by walking the picket line in protest of the Philadelphia Theatre Company's anti-worker policies."

The handbill union members handed out outside the strike Wednesday, January 16 states, "April 4 marks the 44th anniversary of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, where he'd gone to support a strike by black sanitation workers. In talking with the strikers, King suggested they are 'going beyond purely civil rights questions to questions of human rights' by raising 'the economic issue.' People should have the right not only to sit at a lunch counter, but also the right to afford a hamburger, he told the audience."

"Today, the workers at the Philadelphia Theater Company are walking in the path laid down by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in their attempt to get a fair contract. The Philadelphia Theater Company has decided to hire strike breakers and scabs to do the work of these people rather than agree to a fair deal."

PTC's managing director Beckerman released a statement, which says, "Philadelphia Theatre Company is a small non-profit group that is working to meet the financial challenges it faces in a tough economy, just like many non-profit arts organizations in our region. The company's stagehand employees voted in September to become members of IATSE Local 8, which did nothing to change these facts or address the challenges we face."

"PTC is eager to complete negotiations as soon as possible and expects all performances and theatrical events to proceed as scheduled. We remain focused on the goal of working together to ensure the future success of our company."

She insists they are negotiating in good faith, and the show will go on. She says union members have been invited back and are welcome individually or as a group while conversations about a contract continue.

Union business agent Michael Barnes says negotiations began in September 2012, but union negotiators faced delay tactics by PTC's management team. The strike was called Wednesday, because the union claims their jobs are being threatened.

"This is a first-time contract for what were previously unrepresented workers," Barnes says. "We're looking to establish benefits for workers that are comparable to what other workers receive at Philadelphia Theatre Company. We believe the finances to accomplish this exist, based on what they pay the management side of the theater. We're looking for wage increases. Many have not seen increases in salaries for years, and some of these people regularly work 12 or 16 hour days. They don't get [holiday] pay when they work on holidays, while many employees of Philadelphia Theatre Company get paid to not work on holidays. These are some of the lowest paid workers in the theater."

No other comparably-sized Equity theatre in Philadelphia, including Arden Theatre Company and the Wilma, has a relationship with the stagehands' union. The larger Walnut Street Theatre uses union stagehands.

"The offer the union made was to continue the practices established before the union," Barnes tells KYW Newsradio 1060. "Management has rejected that and re-proposed that if the union comes into the building, there will be elimination of jobs, and they will have to be farmed out."

On Thursday, the second day of the strike, the theater canceled its open dress rehearsal "due to unforeseen technical circumstances." PTC continues to sell seats for this weekend's previews, and it is unclear whether the strike will affect Monday's film screening with mayoral candidate Sam Katz, producer of the historical documentary Fever: 1793.

The PTC management told the design team and director of The Mountaintop that the theater would reach out to stagehands from New York and Delaware. On Thursday evening, the design and creative teams had walked out. The Mountaintop director Patricia McGregor brought the picketers doughnuts for breakfast Thursday morning.

Barnes says the union expects to return to the bargaining table on Monday, the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. The union says it is ready to discuss negotiations now, but PTC management refuses to meet until Monday.