Stagehands at Vancouver Symphony Orchestra file 72-hour strike notice over stalled contract negotiations

A file photo shows the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra during a performance. Stagehands with the VSO have filed a 72-hour strike notice April 11, nearly 10 months into contract negotiations.

The show may not go on at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra this week as stagehands prepare to strike, after 10 months of failed contract negotiations.

International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 118 filed an official 72-hour strike notice against the VSO on Tuesday, marking a first in the union’s 118-year history.

At the heart of the issue is the Cost of Living Adjustment clause that protects wage increases from dropping below the rate of inflation, according to the strike notice.

“We have had COLA protection in our contract with the VSO for over 50 years. We will fight to defend it,” IATSE 118 wrote on Facebook Tuesday.

The union represents 420 members and 250 additional stagehands working on temporary permits, and its last contract with the VSO ended June 30, 2022.

After months of unsuccessful talks, 136 casual workers voted 97.5 per cent in favor of job action in February 2023.

Following the vote, the union says the VSO came back with a lower offer than what was made in previous negotiations, while also pushing back against the COLA clause in IATSE 118’s former contract.

According to the strike notice, the VSO is arguing that the cost of living adjustment it owes IATSE 118 as part of a previous contract should count as a rate increase in its 2023 collective agreement.

“Put simply, the VSO is looking to strip our protections against runaway inflation—protections that over the four years of the collective agreement would cost them less than it would to pay all the symphony musicians half an hour of overtime,” the union’s vice president, Diana Bartosh, wrote in an email to CTV News on Tuesday.

“We made it through the stagflation of the 1970s together, we supported them through the 1980s when they almost went bankrupt, we made it through the 2008 recession and through the COVID-19 pandemic. To see new leadership come in and throw away all that history for a few pennies is really just heartbreaking,” said Bartosh.

While the union has not detailed what job action is on the horizon, it’s launched the website StageHandsonStrike.com to rally public support.

Bartosh says her union does not want to go on strike, and hopes that the VSO will return to the table “to bargain fairly.”

“We take pride in helping to present music and theatre across the province, and have no desire to limit access to it. But we also can't sit by while such a large organization attempts to cut the wages of its workers,” Bartosh said.

Cameron MacRae, vice-president of the VSO, told CTV News Tuesday that his management team was disappointed by IATSE Local 118’s strike notice.

“Over the past several months, the VSO and IATSE Local 118 have been working together in good faith towards a new collective agreement. We appreciate the contributions of stagehands and theatre technicians in helping create memorable experiences for our audiences and community,” MacRae wrote in an email.

“VSO management remains ready, willing and able to return to the bargaining table immediately,” he continued.