Why I was wrong.

Ok, I
was  wrong about
the strike.  I admit it.  Now the fun part is trying to understand
why.

I didn't think
there would be a Broadway stagehands strike because of the history of the two
organizations at the crux of this confrontation.

What I failed
to take into account is how the makeup of those organizations, especially The
Broadway League, has changed over the past several years.

We forget that
the theater industry is a young one.  The modern theater is less than one
hundred years old.  The golden age of musicals ended less than 50 years
ago, and some of the individuals that played such a crucial role in the birth
of the business are still active players in the industry.  But to quote
a turkey from
last year, the times are a changin' . . . and I'm seeing a whole generation of
these incredible leaders start to play less and less of a role in the day to
day operations of the theater, as a new group of producers comes into their
own.  It's the theater industry's version of the "baby boomer"
phenomenon.

The last three major negotiations have been more contentious than their
previous years.  Local 1 (strike), Local 802 (strike), AEA (no strike, but
it resulted in a major restructuring of the touring market).  This is not
a coincidence.  This is a result of these baby boomers getting in there
and shaking things up.  Which is exactly what's needed.

And what else
is different about these three negotiations? 

They are all
post 9/11. 

We live in a
new theatrical economy now.  The way we live changed significantly that
day, and therefore the way we do business has to change with it.  Whether
we like it or not.