Actors’ Equity Members Rally in Times Square Ahead of Broadway Contract Negotiations

On Wednesday, Broadway workers, union leaders, and elected officials rallied in Times Square as part of the AFL-CIO’s “It’s Better in a Union: Fighting for Freedom, Fairness & Security” nationwide bus tour. Actors’ Equity President Brooke Shields, Executive Director Al Vincent, Jr., NYC CCLC President Brendan Griffith, NY State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento, IATSE President Matthew Loeb, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and others joined Equity members as they prepare to head into negotiations with The Broadway League next week. The rally marked the first stop of the tour in New York City as Equity enters contract negotiations.

As actors and stage managers, these members work intense jobs on grueling schedules – so their employers need to do their part to keep their workers healthy and make careers sustainable. This is why Equity is asking them to pay their fair share toward health insurance, create more humane scheduling including increased job coverage, and provide appropriate paid time off to keep everyone in the best shape possible to do the work.

“Every working person deserves a fair deal at work. We need reasonable schedules, protection when we get hurt,” Shields said, adding that she herself once tore her meniscus and still danced on it for three months. “Our stage managers don’t have swings. They get sick, they have to still come to work. It’s too much. We need safer staffing practices. We need fair share money going into our health insurance.” Read more in The Hollywood Reporter!