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Blue sound Man joins protest

By JAMES ADAMS
Globe and Mail
Friday, June 3, 2005 Page A16

With previews of the Canadian premiere of the Blue Man Group multimedia show set to start in less than a week, the four unions seeking a collective agreement with its New York-based production company were handing out copies of a "Blue Man Employees' Bill of Rights" yesterday in front of the Toronto theatre Blue Man hopes will be its home for years to come.

Just one day earlier, Blue Man filed a complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board against one of the unions, Canadian Actors' Equity, saying Equity is harassing individuals hired for the Toronto show. Blue Man wants a directive from the board prohibiting Equity from contacting those hires who are Equity members. The union, however, says it has the right to communicate with and, if necessary, discipline its membership.

Earlier this year Equity and the other unions -- the Toronto Musicians' Association, and two locals of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees -- forbade its members to rehearse or accept jobs with Blue Man until collective agreements were signed -- something Blue Man has been averse to doing in its 14-year history. Toronto's professional theatre scene, by contrast, has been highly unionized for decades, and wants its members to fill most of the roughly 70 positions needed for the eight shows Blue Man intends to run each week.

The unions were spurred to distribute their "bill of rights" at the new 700-seat Panasonic Theatre by the resignation last week of the head sound engineer for Blue Man's Toronto show.

Speaking to the media yesterday, Mark Finkelstein, 49, of Toronto said he quit the production May 24 after working less than a month with the 45-person technical crew .

Hired on Blue Man's behalf by Vancouver-headquartered Nasco Staffing Solutions, Mr. Finkelstein said he was told he would be paid $20.86 an hour for at least a 41-hour workweek, plus a full benefits package. However, he later was informed that he likely would work only 30 or 31 hours a week, with no guaranteed minimum, and that his benefits for several months would be restricted to vacation pay, employment insurance and Canada Pension Plan.

Mr. Finkelstein -- a veteran sound engineer who's worked in such Toronto venues as Lee's Palace and Ted's Wrecking Yard as well as for such concert acts as Moist -- also said he was verbally abused by a senior Blue Man official. "There was nothing but sarcasm any time you asked him about anything."

Mr. Finkelstein, who's never been a member of a labour organization, said he decided to support the unions after reading full-page ads, paid for by Blue Man, in the May 28 Globe and Mail and Toronto Star.

Headlined "An open letter to the community from Blue Man Group," the ads said Blue Man didn't need to engage in collective bargaining because it has always "offered salaries that typically exceed union norms as well as competitive benefits."

Yesterday, IATSE official Kevin Mahoney disputed this, saying that a sound engineer like Mr. Finkelstein in an IATSE-contracted venue similar to the Panasonic would be paid anywhere from $24.54 to $27.65 an hour on a 44-hour weekly minimum, plus $5.50 to $6.16 an hour for benefits including dental and retirement savings plans.

Manny Igrejas, Blue Man's director of public relations, said "losing one out of 70 ain't bad" -- referring to Mr. Finkelstein's departure from the total job complement -- especially in the intense weeks leading up to opening day.

"It doesn't always work for some people."