Author: Kleingartner, Archie and Lloyd, Kenneth

Publication Year: 1970

Media Type: Report

Summary:

This note is an exploration of the union role in the management of performing and visual arts enterprises in Los Angeles. Many artistic organizations are not in business for profit. Almost all such organizations end up with a deficit at the end of the year. In Los Angeles, as almost everywhere in the , the performing arts are highly unionized. This is true both of the stage performers and supporting personnel.

Abstract:

This note is an exploration of the union role in the management of performing and visual arts enterprises in Los Angeles. Many artistic organizations are not in business for profit. Almost all such organizations end up with a deficit at the end of the year. In Los Angeles, as almost everywhere in the , the performing arts are highly unionized. This is true both of the stage performers and supporting personnel.

Because payments to artistic personnel constitute the single largest item in the operating budget of artistic organizations, it is inevitable that unions have a major impact on the economic viability of these organizations. The inherent, short-term nature of many arts activities places the unions in the position of determining in a fundamental way the quality and availability of artistic performances. An outgrowth of this critical role is that collective bargaining and labor management relations tend to have some highly distinctive characteristics. For example, the unions have penetrated more deeply in the management of artistic enterprises than is typically the case for unions in the manufacturing and other profit making sectors.

Our principle concern is to describe and analyze these aspects of unionism and labor management relations that managers of artistic organizations should know and appreciate. Unions may be of assistance to management - or they may make it impossible for management to accomplish its objectives. One thing is clear in the performing arts: management does not operate independently of their influence and power. Our data are drawn primarily from the live theatre and, to a lesser extent, the art museums. While these two types of artistic operations do not exhaust the range of performing arts organizations (e.g., we are not considering symphony orchestras, opera, and dance companies), they do encompass most of the various unions which represent employees in the performing and visual arts. We have deliberately excluded the motion picture and television industries and the unions more or less unique to those industries (e.g., the Screen Actors Guild.)

CONTENTS
Patterns of Union Activity.
Union representation.
Union as rule makers.
The bargaining structure.
Summary.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Organizational Planning