by Trustee John Diaz
In six years, automation has taken away almost 50% of our jobs. In 1996, we had 17 hit musicals on Broadway with 478 members working on them. In the banner year of 2002, we had 17 hit musicals with 268 members working. We now have 22 musicals open with 342 members working which is a slight drop in people per show from last year. How can Local One fight this? We train our members to run the equipment that is taking our jobs away. This is the only reason that we still have 342 jobs.
Another issue with automation is safety. Not only ours, but anyone that
steps foot on the stage or in the studio. The performers have no idea if
there is ten pounds of scenery above their heads or ten tons. They do not
ask who the rigger is and how much experience or training they have. Do
they ask how many hours of maintenance are put in during the run of the
show? I don't think so. They feel that the company that they work for has
all this under control. Due to the high cost of proper maintenance, many
times things are let go until they break. This could cause serious injuries
that could have been avoided if time was put in and the equipment is
properly cared for.
As a member of the Safety Committee, I have a problem with this. If
something falls out of the air and hurts anyone, the insurance companies
will pay off that person, but who will be blamed? The company will blame
the stagehands, saying that we did not express to them that there was a
hazardous situation. The stage manager that tells us to "go", does not
necessarily know that the piece flying in won't stop on a dime nor would
they know if the cables were damaged or if they had ever been checked for
damage. It is our responsibility to let everyone know about these dangers.
Another issue is the age of the theatres, particularly the grids. The
average age of our theatres is 65 years old. The building codes back then
were different then they are now. The original designs did not necessarily
take into consideration the amount of weight that today's shows have evolved
into. When these new shows load into a theatre, they are not only bringing
in the pieces of scenery, they are now bringing in the machines and motors
that move them. These are all being hung from the grid of the theatres.
A piece that moves is putting an extra weight on the grid (a live load).
Since the pieces themselves are getting larger, the live loads are as well.
Over time this extra weight will facilitate the erosion of the over-all
tensile strength of the grid and the building that supports that grid.
One of the issues that I do not understand is the renting of a winch to run
one piece as compared to having a stagehand that can run several pieces and
has the intelligence to know when there is a problem and can try and correct
it. Is it that the producers are making some sort of economical gain from
the rentals? Again, it appears that they do not care for anyone's safety as
long as they make money. The producers think that safety is the
responsibility of the theatre owners, who feel that the producers are the
ones that need to be responsible for the safety of their show. Anyone who
steps into the theatre could be in danger. It is up to us to make others
realize the consequences of their actions.
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