League Contract Negotiation Points Revealed

Contract negotiations are always confusing to people watching from the outside. Because of the media blackout instituted on June 16, little has come out about the exact sticking points between the Actors' Equity Association and The League of American Theatres and Producers. Most in the industry know that the main goals for Equity are a decrease in the amount of non-Equity tours and an increase in The League's contribution to the health care fund. The producers want concessions for touring productions. And what else do they want? Broadway.com has obtained a list of League requests from early on in negotiations.

According to the document, The League hoped to make the following revisions to their contract with Actors' Equity:

- To cut sick leave benefits

- To be able to pay juvenile actors 60% of minimum salary which was $1354 a week in the now expired production contract, but is expected to be higher in any future agreement

- To be permitted to layoff Equity members for up to six weeks in any combination with no pay

- To be allowed to prohibit actors from skiing, snowboarding or playing basketball

- To stop paying for promotional appearances

- To eliminate actors' payments for appearances in television commercials advertising productions if the promotion was shot during the show

- To decrease upfront payments for work on cast albums and eliminate actors' royalty participation in such projects

- To require actors to identify pre-existing medical conditions

- To be able to sign actors to a one-day contract

- To be allowed to schedule six performances in three days without extra pay if a show is less than two hours

- To be permitted to fire actors for "just cause" even if said actor is on contract

- To increase lateness fines by more than 100%

- To prohibit Equity's right to strike

It is unknown whether any of these requests were agreed upon by Equity representatives or withdrawn prior to the breakdown in negotiations.

After this story had been on the site for over a day, Broadway.com received this comment from the spokesperson for The League: "The descriptions of the League's position on key issues in this story are false, outdated and completely misleading. They bear no resemblance to the offers now on the table in the Production Contract negotiations with Actors' Equity."