Has The Union Helped You Lately? - labor contracts, unions for dancers - Statistical Data Included

Dance Magazine, April, 2001 by Joseph Carman

A question posed by some politicians during the recent elections concerned their constituents' standards of living: "Are you better off now than you were eight years ago?" In an era of unprecedented long-term economic upswing, some people have benefited; others have not. So how have dancers in union-regulated dance companies fared since 1992? The answer seems to be that, with a few qualifications, they have done all right but that the future holds some important caveats.

The American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), affiliated with the AFL-CIO, is the primary union for ballet and modern companies that have chosen to adhere to a union base. Troupes such as the Tulsa Ballet and Ballet Hispanico, with budgets of around $2 million, all the way up to New York City Ballet, with a budget of $38 million, fall under the auspices of AGMA, which also represents opera choristers, solo singers, stage directors and stage managers. Slightly more than a thousand dancers hold AGMA memberships.

AGMA has four sister unions. The Actors Equity Association (AEA) covers dancers in Broadway, some off-Broadway shows and Equity-based regional theaters. The American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA) is for dancers in some variety shows, such as those in Las Vegas, the Rockettes and dancers in Broadway musicals without a book. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) protects dancers in the film industry. And the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) does the same for those involved in television and radio broadcasts. (Dancers can belong to more than one union.) A separate union, the Society for Stage Directors and Choreographers, represents theatrical directors and choreographers working on Broadway, off-Broadway and in regional theaters.

With some exceptions, AGMA has managed to keep weekly salaries of dancers it represents increasing at around 3 to 4 percent a year since 1992. Generally, unionized dancers work for companies with bigger budgets than non-union companies and tend to have better wages and benefits. According to John Munger of Dance/USA, a national service organization for not-for-profit professional dance companies, the cumulative rate of inflation from 1992 to 1999 was 18 percent, whereas dancers' salaries (union and non-union) rose 27 percent to 31 percent. That alone is not good enough, say some dancer's.

One who agrees with that assessment is Alan S. Gordon, the national executive director of AGMA since February 2000. He's Bronx-born, street-smart and frank as a ballpark hot dog.

"When I got here, AGMA was very screwed up. This was a mom-and-pop store. It just looked like a union," says Gordon, who formerly worked as a labor lawyer in the film industry. "I understood that our representation of dancers was at best moribund and at worst antagonistic to dancers. I knew that [American Ballet Theatre] had left AGMA--the reason being that they were treated terribly." Compared to other AGMA-represented performing artists, he said, "dancers were perceived as being less important ... kind of a tag-along." What made the scenario all the more outrageous to Gordon was the fact that dancers were providing far more income to the union in dues payments than their lackluster improvement in salaries and working conditions indicated. (AGMA dues are $78 annually plus 2 percent of an artist's gross annual salary, not to exceed $2,000.)

ABT's dancers rallied along with Lori Rosencrans, the principal stage manager for ABT, to leave AGMA when the union did not support them during contract negotiations in 1994. ABT dancers had for several years secured their own labor lawyer, Leonard Leibowitz, whose retainer fee for each negotiation was at least $20,000. Previously, AGMA had contributed $5,000 towards the retainer, but in 1994, the union refused to contribute anything. Dancers were fed up.

"We paid about $65,000 a year to AGMA," says Rosencrans. "So we formed our own union, Independent Artists of America. Since 1994, our dues pay the lawyer's retainer." ABT's most recently negotiated contract guarantees its dancers thirty-six weeks of work annually, excellent health coverage, a 403b pension plan (a tax-sheltered annuity employee plan) and a steady 4 percent increase in salary through 2004, a big improvement over the dismal 1993 settlement. For the 2000-01 season, first-year ABT corps dancers make $653 weekly, soloists $1,498 and principals $1,679. "Absolutely yes, we're doing better, because our union is always fighting," says Rosencrans, who is currently its vice president.

Part of that fight includes the recognition that dancers face many issues beyond getting pay raises that outpace inflation: guaranteed weeks of work, decent working conditions in home cities and on tour, pension contributions, health and disability coverage and severance pay. According to Nicholas Leschke, a soloist and AGMA dancers' representative with the Houston Ballet, artists in that company definitely feel better off than they were eight years ago.

"We've gotten more out of management, not taking advantage of them, but we're working better with them through the contract. Pay has gone up, with more cost-of-living adjustments." First-year corps dancers who made $464 per week in 1993 now make $608, while soloist salaries have escalated to $842 from $638 and principals to $935 from $694.