New York Broadway producers and the stagehands union will return
to the negotiation table on Saturday, local media reported
Wednesday.
The meeting will be the first since talks broke down last week,
prompting a strike by stagehands that is now in its fifth day.
The major sticking point has been the number of stagehands
required to work each show. Producers accuse the union of forcing
them to hire and pay more workers than are really needed. But the
stagehand union says it will not give up job protection.
More than two dozen Broadway plays and musicals, such as The
Color Purple, Chicago, Grease, Phantom
of the Opera, have been shut down in the past five days by the
work stoppage. Only eight shows remain open under separate
contracts with producers.
It is estimated that the strike would cost the city US$17
million a day.
(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2007)