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AN OPEN LETTER TO THE BLUE MAN GROUP FROM A MEMBER OF THE COMMUNITY

Robin Breon
(c) 2005

The full page ad that appeared in the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail (28/05/05, "An Open Letter to the Community from Blue Man Group"), bought and paid for by the Blue Man Group, employs an anti-union agenda that is as old as the hills. Attack the leadership, attempt to divide the community and intimate your employees in order to avoid signing a union contract.

The ad specifically attacks "the theatrical union leadership's attempt to create controversy" because three Toronto unions, Actors Equity, the Musicians Union and IATSE (stage technicians), have exposed the Blue Man Group's attempt to conduct business outside of the generally accepted collective agreements these unions maintain and administer within the Toronto entertainment industry.

Quoting further from the ad, the Blue Man Group maintains they are "a unique organization" whose employees are "collaborative contributors" and that "no other business models support the kind of creative company that we have developed."

Gee whiz! On the face of it, you'd think they're some kind of non-profit cooperative that regularly distributes profits equally among all of its employees rather than a multi-million dollar corporation that is bound and determined not to sign a collective agreement.

The self-congratulatory tone in the ad goes on to say that Blue Man Group has "hired Canadian actors and musicians, a Canadian crew, as well as Canadian management and support staff." Well congratulations, Blue Man Group! It has been almost three decades now since the bus and truck companies (originating mainly from the U.S.) have ceded this territory to home grown Canadian talent. Clever of Blue Man Group to recognize the trend. It is disturbing to note, however, that recently a number of touring companies emanating from the U.S. are increasingly non-union operations that are exploiting young talent and undermining wage and working conditions standards set by union contracts.

Taking an egalitarian stance, Blue Man Group continues to observe that: "It is an employee's choice to join a union - not an employer's place to require it" while going on to condemn the "theatrical union leadership's questionable rhetoric and coercive tactics."

If there was ever an example of questionable rhetoric and coercive tactics, the ad in last Saturday's Globe and Star is a great example. If there is any pro-union sentiment among the 70 Canadians employed by Blue Man Group, they had better keep their opinions to themselves because their employer is clearly on record as being against any move toward unionization.

With one final pat on the back and a nod to "our history", Blue Man Group concludes that without any agreement "with a union or association" their organization has offered "competitive benefits" with "superior job security, conflict resolution, employee development, and health and safety committees in each of our theatres - and we do so by choice."

Let's be clear about this last bit. Blue Man Group does so not "by choice" but because a standard and a protocol has been established over many years by the unions and employers involved in the entertainment industry and because some of these protocols are now established in law and are recognized as standard jurisprudence.

An interesting U.S. parallel to what is occurring in Toronto is in the city of Las Vegas. LV is a heavily unionized town whose economic lifeline is the hospitality industry and all of the attendant entertainment venues that go with it. Our own Canadian success story, Cirque du Soleil, has no less than four shows running concurrently in four separate venues in Las Vegas and all of them with unionized performers, musicians and technical personnel. There is, however, one hotel - Luxor Las Vegas - that has adamantly refused to provide a unionized work environment for its employees and subsequently is not patronized by many organizations that meet in LV for their for conventions and conferences. The entertainment offering at Hotel Luxor?

Why, it's the Blue Man Group!

My own professional experience in Toronto has been mainly rooted in administrating for small, non-profit companies that have regularly employed equity actors and union musicians. I can attest unequivocally that "the theatrical union leadership" to which the Blue Man Group refers has always been fair, accommodating and supportive of our endeavours.

It is also just slightly ironic that the "theatrical union leadership" these Blue Men are so eager to pillory is a woman. Susan Wallace is executive director of Canadian Actors' Equity and has been leading a consumer boycott that has rapidly taken on a national focus as "the Wal-Mart of the arts".

Strangely, the lengthy text of the Blue Man Group screed is anonymously signed, concluding simply with "Sincerely, Blue Man Group". I suggest that in the great Canadian tradition of debate and discussion, that the Blue Men come out of hiding, take off the greasepaint and meet the community personally. We'll rent a hall (union of course), put together a panel and invite the community out to hear both sides of the issue. Or are these Blue Men afraid that in doing so their true colours might be revealed?

Robin Breon is a freelance arts and cultural writer and a member of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association.