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Strike averted: Stagehands and Kennedy Center reach agreement on a new contract
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Tuesday Oct. 12th - Loudoun County Labor Caucus - 5 pm
Meeting for union members and community allies in Loudoun County.
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Tuesday Oct. 12th - International Solidarity Committee - 6 pm
This committee establishes relationships and supports campaigns uniting workers in northern Virginia with workers in other countries. "Workers of all lands unite!" in the face of global corporate power.
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Tues. and Wed. Oct. 12th and 13th - Volunteer Phone Bank - 6:00-8:00 pm.
We will be calling fellow union members about this year's election. Please click the below link to register.
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Post cards and no contact lit resources are available for pick up at the NoVA Labor office.
For more info contact Bob Zabel. mailto:
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Strike averted: Stagehands and Kennedy Center reach agreement on a new contract
Following late night bargaining Friday and a unanimous vote to strike earlier this week, stagehands represented by the [link removed] International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 22 have reached an agreement for a new three-year contract with management at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The agreement was ratified by the union's membership at a meeting on Saturday.
The new agreement calls for a wage freeze in the first year, followed by a slight increase in compensation in years two and three. Two new positions in the bargaining unit will be created. Protocols for better protecting workers against covid also were established. Most significantly, the union was able to lock in jurisdictional rights for the REACH, a new wing of the performing arts center. The Kennedy Center's management will gain some added flexibility for staffing load-out calls.
"This was a long hard slog, but we now have a contract we can live with that protects our members and gives the Kennedy Center the relief it needs to recover from the pain caused by the pandemic," said IATSE Local 22 President David McIntyre. "We could not accept the Kennedy Center's managers using the pandemic as leverage to gut our contract and we would not go along with the fiction that an expansion of the building wasn't part of the Kennedy Center."
Stagehands had been prepared to strike. When bargaining for a new contract began 16 months ago, the Kennedy Center had sought to slash wages 40 percent, eliminate jobs, and end Sunday overtime pay. The center's managers also were insistent that the REACH be considered a separate facility that could be staffed by low-wage, non-union labor. IATSE members had offered to take a 10 percent wage-cut and make other changes that would remain in effect during the pandemic.
Now that a contract has been agreed to and ratified, scheduled performances at the Kennedy Center will take the stage. If a strike had been called, it would have led to the cancellation or postponement of the Broadway musical Hadestown, which is playing at the Kennedy Center's opera house from Oct. 13 to Oct. 31.
Today's Labor Quote: John F. Kennedy
TODAY'S LABOR HISTORY
This week's Labor History Today podcast: This week's show: [link removed] The Battle of Virden. Last week's show: [link removed] Sharecroppers' struggles for rights and power.
Company guards kill at least eight miners who are attempting to stop scabs, Virden, Ill. Six guards also were killed, and 30 persons wounded - 1898
14 miners killed, 22 wounded by scabherders at Pana, Ill. - 1902
Hear more about [link removed] The Battle of Virden on this week's Labor History Today podcast!
2,000 workers demanding union recognition close down dress manufacturing, Los Angeles - 1933
More than 1 million Canadian workers demonstrate against wage controls - 1976
- David Prosten.
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