Broadway’s striking stagehands agreed to head back to the bargaining table yesterday after getting the squeeze from one of their biggest employers – Disney.
The entertainment giant is dispatching its top labor lawyers to the table for the talks, which are scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m. The meeting will be the first between the union and theater producers since the work stoppage went into affect over the weekend.
Disney has two big-time holiday money-makers that have been halted by the strike – “The Lion King” and “The Little Mermaid.” It’s also concerned that the strike might spread to out-of-town shows, which would be devastating, sources said.
The stagehands consider Disney a good employer and believe it would be a neutral mediator in their battle, the sources said.
“We trust and respect Disney,” a union source said.
Meanwhile, the producers also welcome Disney’s involvement and think the company to bridge the wide gap between them and the stagehands.
The producers have great admiration for Disney because it has helped revitalize Times Square with its hit shows, which have also toured around the country.
Adding to the pressure from the entertainment conglomerate on both sides to get to the table were other theatrical unions, mainly the actors and musicians, sources said.
Mayor Bloomberg called the weekend meeting – which is drawing back union honcho Tom Short from the TV writers’ strike on the West Coast – “a very important step forward.”
“I spoke with both sides again today and reiterated that we will provide any help we can to help resolve these disagreements and let the shows go on,” he said.
Officials with the actors and musicians unions had urged Local 1 to open up talks out of fears that the strike was going to last too long – and hurt their members, who are also not working.
On Tuesday, Local 1 president James Claffey Jr. went to a powwow with the actors union to explain his position.
He defended their decision not to meet with The League of American Theaters and Producers because he said he didn’t feel they were listening to their demands, a source said.
But that didn’t sit will with many of the actors, who want a bargaining session, the source said.
Even though the opposing sides haven’t officially convened since the strike, sources said there has been some very low-level back channel conversations going on.
Additional reporting by Jennifer Fermino