Did You Know How UpsideDown New York City Really Is? Enter Stage Left

The last time I saw a concert in Carnegie Hall, it was an unfortunate experience. The concert was at best mediocre, apparently the performers did not practice, practice, practice. From the sad assault to the front of me, a child was assaulting my seat with kick from the rear. I had to agree with the child's boredom, but what were the parent's thinking by bringing their 'little darling' to a Baroque Music Concert in the first place, and allowing the onslaught to the back of my seat even after my chiding? The state of the new lib-parenting is another story, but it fits here, where the children terrorize the parents in Carnegie Hall. 

Oh, by the way, those stage hands at that crummy concert make an average of $400,000 per year. That is as Nuts as the Federal Government! m/r

Enter Stage Left by Nicole Gelinas - City Journal

The Carnegie Hall stagehands’ victory is emblematic of New York City’s labor problems.

17 October 2013

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. How do you create a new union job at Carnegie Hall in a time of nonprofit austerity? Exploit upper-class fears of looking unfriendly to the working class.

Earlier this month, the 57th Street institution was forced to cancel its fall season-opening concert because of a stagehand strike. The five members of Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, who make an average of more than $400,000 annually, weren’t protesting a pay cut or reduced pension or health benefits. They were objecting to Carnegie Hall’s plan to open a separate educational concert space without hiring union stagehands to staff it. The workers characterized Carnegie Hall’s position—that educating students is a different business than putting on public concerts—as union-busting. Two days later, the concert schedule was back on and both sides were declaring victory, but the winner was Local One. Carnegie Hall will hire a union stagehand for the new space and more “if needed,” according to the New York Times.

Why didn’t Carnegie Hall fight? After all, it had the facts on its side.

Even in New York City, total compensation of nearly half a million dollars is a lot of money. 

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