Ok, first off....
We all knew this was coming. Regardless of who's typically done this gig before, this is a union town, with the strongest local in the country, eventually they were going to get fashion. Whatever the reason they didn't have it initially, anyone who didn't see this coming doesn't pay enough attention.
That being said, my personal opinion, from the cheapest of cheap seats, was that it was handled poorly. I don't think the powers that be fully understood how heavily the average non-union stagehand relied on this week, and how lean their typical summer is. To pull the rug out from under them at the last minute was..... wrong. I don't know why it came down to the wire, when this move has been common knowledge for at least two years, but I can only hope that it played out this way because it had to, and that the last minute nature was unavoidable. To do it this way works for almost no one, not ideally at least.
September is usually one of the busiest months on Broadway and this year is certainly no exception. With something like 8 shows loading in this month, anyone who's established and connected has had their whole month booked since early August. In addition to Broadway there's the CGI, which eats up all of Local 1 for a week, and the Ballet and the Met both start their fall seasons in September, as well as all the off site jobs for fashion that had already gone to the union hands at those houses.
My point is.... the good people, the people that give Local 1 it's reputation, are mostly booked. And now, at the last minute, heads who don't typically hire union labor(shame on them), and don't have union members in their Rolodex, are forced to fill a heavy week of calls with at least 50% union labor*. I even got an email from a musician friend of mine I haven't seen in years looking for union members for a fashion gig his friend was doing.
But you know who's available? Who's always available, the regulars at the hiring hall. They will come out for the work, and be more then thankful. You can staff a call with them, but then you have a call staffed with people who can't find work for themselves during the busiest month of the year. Local 1 then risks making it's first impression with what is, let's be honest, not it's best foot forward. Had the members been given more notice that fashion would be a union job, I'm sure some rock stars and A-listers would have loved to do a week of that over a week of load ins, but almost no notice was given. Most of the non-union stagehands I've met already suffer from the dead wrong impression that Local 1 is filled with lazy entitled members, and I don't think fully staffing a call from the hiring hall will go a long way to altering that. Understand that I am speaking here in Very broad terms. Certainly not everyone who sits the hiring hall is lazy or unskilled, but the risk of the above scenario is real enough, especially in a new venue when most of the crews don't know each other.
All that being said, in my opinion it's still a good thing that this change happened when it did. The change in venue was a good time to do it, and putting it off another year means a weakened negotiating position in a years time. Like I said initially, this is a union town, arguably one of the strongest union towns in the country, and this event now devours the whole city for two weeks each year, gaining international press. The scope of work being done at fashion is clearly of a union scope, and needs to be done under a union contract, with union safety guidelines, for union wages.
To all my non union members:
I've heard more then a few complain that union members won't be able to keep up, that they won't, in the words of one stagehand, "be able to load in a show with 4 people, in 3 hours, on 40 hours with no sleep. They won't be able to troubleshoot a moving light, and then shimmy up a ladder with a replacement light by themselves." First off, yes they can. As a friend of mine said, "a lot of these guys have forgotten more about putting in a show then I know." Secondly, and more importantly, they won't because THAT'S NOT SAFE. I imagine that a number of things will change about how fashion week is handled, because from what I've heard, a number of them are really kind of hazardous and stupid. And that's one of the most important things you get from working under a union contract, the protection from being forced to do hazardous and stupid things(most of the time). Moving lights will take two people. Climbers will wear nifty things called 'Safety Harnesses' and, when you do work 40 hours with no sleep, you get paid very very very well for it.(I know, I know, you think you already are. Trust me, you're not.)
If you're a full time, NYC stagehand, have fashion experience, and don't have a union card, this change is a god send for you, and you'll get ahead by looking at it like one. Here you are, perfectly positioned with the job experience to fill the other 50% of positions on the calls, get paid more money, union money, under a better contract, meet some good union members(yes, despite my early fear mongering, I'm sure the majority of stagehands there for fashion will be rock stars who will change some minds about Local 1), and start getting your name around in the Local 1 circles. This is a big fat Diem just waiting to be Carpe'd. If you can capitalize on it, this is a great opportunity for non union NYC stagehands.
If you're a full time, NYC stagehand and have no desire to join Local 1, I really have to ask why. Speaking from personal experience, I've done both union and non-union work, and I'd never choose to go back to non-union work.
If you're a fashion veteran who's either not in NYC, or not a full time stagehand, I'm sorry, but I don't have a lot of sympathy for you. I'm not rooting for your poverty, not by any means, but there are those of us who have chosen to do this, in this place, as a career. We've made sacrifices and investments to do that and each job that goes to an out of work actor or someone who flies in just for a big week is money that's taken away from a full time, career stagehand. I think it sucks that this was dropped on you at the last minute, I really do. When you get used to a 5-6 thousand dollar week I know it must feel like a punch in the gut to have it pulled away from you. That being said, Stagehanding in this town is very feast/famine, and if you go do something else during the famine, I don't think you have an equal place at the table when the feast comes around. Just my opinion.
The process of people coming in from the "outside" and joining the union is a newer one, at least in terms of it's popularity. My personal opinion is that it's a good thing, and Local one needs more of it. Producers should be forced to hire a union Grand MA programmer not because the Local will strike if they don't, but because every last Grand MA programmer in this town has a union card. Local 1 should have the market on talented stagehands so cornered people start filing anti-trust suits against them. But they way to do that is to have more union work, and more split union work, so non-union members have a better time transitioning in. Right now the worlds are largely separate, and nobody wins. Non-union members have tons of negative misconceptions about what union life is, and union members, especially second and third generation ones, really don't understand how well off they have it. More fluidity between these worlds can only be a good thing, and the new setup for fashion week does almost exactly that.
*My understanding is that the deal is for 50% of the labor to be Local 1 cardholders, with the contract heads having a Local 1 shadow. If I'm wrong, then my bad.
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