ABSTRACT
All Broadway theatres are union houses and if you are going to work on Broadway you will need to be in a union. There are many different unions involved in theatre and they break down by departments. There is a union for actors and directors and stage managers. There is a union for musicians. There is a union for company managers. There is a union for stagehands and there is even a union for ushers and box office staff. Some of these unions you might be familiar with. Others are more specialized for New York theatre. These unions are all considered craft or trade unions, not industrial unions. (Craft unionism means to organize a group of workers unifying the workers in a particular industry along the lines of the particular craft or trade they work in. Industrial unionism is when all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of differences in skill.)
Craft unionism formed the backbone of the American Federation of Labor, which merged with the industrial unions of the Congress of Industrial Organizations to form the AFL-CIO. Under this approach, each union is organized according to the craft, or specific work function, of its members. For example, in the theatre trades, all stagehands belong to the stagehands’ union, the musicians belong to the musicians’ union, and so on. Each craft union has its own administration, its own policies, its own collective bargaining agreements, and its own union halls. A union hall is a place where workers can go when they need work. Theatres call the hall when they need workers.
