The Grinch stole Christmas, and now Broadway stagehands have made off with Thanksgiving.
Shame on them.
As weekend negotiations with the striking stagehands union collapsed, theater owners and producers announced that three-quarters of Broadway venues would remain dark (a handful of shows have not been struck) until next week at the earliest.
The announcement was made to warn off the thousands of tourists who might’ve made plans to come to the city for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The result?
What is traditionally Broadway’s second biggest week is now toast.
Ten days into the strike, the union continues to blame so-called “greedy” producers – but, regarding greed, the stagehands need to look in a mirror.
Stagehands make $100,000 to $150,000 a year. That’s a pretty sweet deal, even by New York standards – and it’s made even sweeter by the fact that stagehanding isn’t among Gotham’s more demanding trades.
Indeed, very few waiters, waitresses, busboys, bartenders and retail workers make that sort of money. Yet these are the working people who are taking a huge hit.
They’re losing money during what should be a peak time of the year – and they don’t have a strike fund to help offset the losses.
The city estimates that it is losing millions every day – and only a third of that is in ticket sales.
Restaurants and other venues are already canceling employee shifts and holding off on hiring extra holiday help.
Meanwhile, the unions are holding out for the continued right to “featherbed” – to force producers to employ more workers than the job actually requires.
As The Post reported this week, the head of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees – parent of Local One, which represents the stagehands – was close to carving out a deal.
Local One refused to take it.
And so, New York suffers.
The theater district always does well during the holidays, squirreling away the profits for the traditionally leaner post-yuletide months.
Without that reserve, a lot of people – and not just the stagehands – are going to have a very unhappy New Year indeed.
Like we said, for shame.