NEW YORK – Locked out Metropolitan Opera stagehands protested the use of nonunion shops to construct sets for the company's upcoming season, attracting a crowd of roughly 1,000 people outside Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Thursday.
The Met has been shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic since March 11, 2020, canceling 276 performances plus an international tour scheduled for next month, but it has announced plans to start next season in September.
The company stopped pay to unionized employees on March 31 last year because of the pandemic, while continuing health benefits.
The stagehands’ contract expired last July 31, and that union was locked out Dec. 8. James J. Claffey, Jr., president of Local One of the International Alliance