Broadway musicians are the latest group of live theater workers to authorize strike action amid ongoing contract negotiations with the theaters that are members of the Broadway League, union officials announced Monday.
Members of AFM Local 802 overwhelmingly voted in favor of a strike authorization, with 98% supporting the measure, President Bob Suttmann said. Musicians have been working without a contract on Broadway since Aug. 31.
The union’s demands, detailed in an open letter to the Broadway League on Oct. 1 and signed by nearly all 1,200 Broadway musicians, include fair wages that reflect Broadway’s success, stable healthcare coverage, and employment and income security, ensuring the preservation of current jobs.
Broadway strike threat comes off a record year
The Broadway League, an organization of 700 producers, theater owners and operators, general managers, reported that the 2024–2025 season, which ran from May 20, 2024, to May 25, 2025, was the highest-grossing season in Broadway history. It generated $1.89 billion in ticket sales and attracted 14.7 million attendees. While it set a new gross record, it ranked second in attendance, behind the 2018–2019 season.
The union’s negotiations with the Broadway League are ongoing, with additional bargaining sessions scheduled in the coming days. While the strike authorization gives the union legal and strategic leverage, no strike has been called.
“On the heels of the most successful season in history, the Broadway League wants the working musicians and artists who fueled that very success to accept wage cuts, threats to healthcare benefits, and potential job losses,” Suttman said. “Faced with such an egregious erosion of their working conditions, Local 802 Broadway musicians and other artists are ready to leverage every ounce of their collective power, up to and including a strike.”
“Committing to anything less would mean sacrificing far too many hard-won gains,” he added.
Local 802’s action follows that of the Actors’ Equity Association, which represents more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers. The association authorized strike action earlier this month.
If agreements are not reached in both negotiations with The Broadway League, which have been ongoing since August, the theater district could experience a period of disruption.
Equity has asked Broadway League producers to pay 0.21% of weekly grosses, in addition to what they currently pay, to fund healthcare. The union and its supporters, including many actors and stage managers, have also called for more humane scheduling, paid time off, safer staffing practices, and protections for performers in the event of injury.
A spokesperson for the Broadway League told amNewYork, “Good-faith negotiations happen at the bargaining table, not in the press.”
“We look forward to returning to the bargaining table this week and are ready to get these contracts done,” they said.
