REVIEW OF THE ARTS
Opera
The truth about the Coliseum union
Rodney Elms
It seems-a great pity that the Arts Council report on the state of industrial relations at the Coliseum is not to be published. Prepared by Roy Wilson, Oscar Hahn and Victor Feather, it is long (77 pages), detailed and extremely well-written, countering labyrinth1n& comPlieations with cool lucid-, ity. It is also, as far as one can judge, utterly fair, and must be one of the most sensible documents to emerge from the Arts Council for years.
Industrial relations at the Coliseum have never been easy since the move from the Wells. After many problems, the infamous Three-Day Working Agreement' was drawn up in 1971. This, in simple terms, allows for not very high rates of basic pay for not all that many hours, though they are not socially well-spaced hours, but also for ample opportunities for overtime at huge rates. The stage staff knew they were on to a good thing (just how good may be judgedfrom a basic weekly Salary this yeat of c.£50 and average take-home pay of c.£120 to £150, and they have consistently resisted any change in this arrangement 'while pressing for increased basic .and overtime rates. As a NATTKE official so charmingly put it, "the boys had got the bit between their teeth."
And despite the fact that rates were and are far in excess of those of other NATTKE members in or out of London, the union tacitly admitted there was nothing they could do to control their boy..
Over the years, overtime payments soared to ever dizzier heights, It is worth noting here that the Coliseum does not keep detailed records of overtime paid, a fact that may be of considerable interest to the Department of Inland Revenue. The Coliseum management put up innumerable proposal's for a change in. working arrangements, and all were rejected. At the end of 1973, Management asked in despair for suggestions from the NATTKE House Committee. None came -7 only renewed demands for higher overtime rates. In June 1974, management laid the money available on the table, and offered increased rates spaced over four years in return for economies and the dropping of restrictive practices. In this they had the support of NATTKE, and they awaited proposals for three months.
Instead, the Committee 'came back with an entirely new demand: threshold payments. The newlyelected Chief Steward, Roger Dade, was not going to wait anything like three months while the management considered this, indeed not three days. On October 29, 1974 the demand was made, and on October, 30 a work-to-rule was voted. Contrary to accepted agreement, neither NATTKE nor management were informed of this until a matter of minutes before the ill-fated performance of The Bassarids was due to start on October 31.
The report examines the events on the three days leading up to and including that evening in minuteby-minute detail, and this section reads like a really good detective story — especially as various accounts do not agree as to fact. In each case, the report states "we prefer the management's account". What happened was that in the ,middle of the modified performance Mr Dade found a lapsed NATTKE member working the lighting board and called a union meeting. It should be noted that there is no closed shop at the Coliseum, and the staff is not allowed to attend or call union meetings in working hours without management permission. The meeting did not `hear' the tannoy call for a scene change (the reporting investigators tested this tannoy and found it to be in order). The performance was abandoned. In direct consequence so were performances for the next five weeks.
The management then made its first, only and crucial mistake in dismissing the forty-six members of staff it thought were responsible. The remainder went on strike, and the union dithered pathetically for three weeks as to whether or not the action was official. The fact that not all the forty-six dismissees were in the theatre that night led to the SWETM/NATTKE Conciliation Board's highly critical report on the management on this score. Management had every right to fire the men, but they should have fired the right ones. The men were re-instated and, justifiably wounded — the Board's criticisms were not within the terms of reference — the management asked the Arts Council to draw up the report under consideration.
This report largely exonerates the management. Its main criticism is that they were not tough enough with the men all along, but as their over-riding concern was that shows paid for out of public funds must go on, it is difficult to see how else they could have acted until the Bassarids flashpoint came. Unfortunately, they have not taken advantage of this showdown and been tough enough since. Perhaps rightly, perhaps not, they made no press statements after the abortive sackings and the bulk of the publicity was on the side of the men. That is one good reason why this report should be published. They interviewed six re-instated ring-leaders in the presence of NATTKE officials, but did not press for dismissal. For all we know they are still there.
Mr Dade, whose saintly, not to say Christ-like, visage gazed so poignantly from the pages of the .Sunday Times last December (a saint, perhaps, due for investigation by the Vatican Council), became Chief,Steward only shortly before the Bassarids drama, and has since left the Coliseum. He is currently employed by the ILEA, with a glowing character reference from Lord Harewood — one of the few moments of dark humour to emerge from the sad affair.
Less humorous is the fact that the men have largely got away with more recent demands as to 'get-out' .payments, etc. Sample quote from report: -It clearly emerged . . . that
the demands made . . . were not founded on any reasoned basis or supported by any principle other than that they wanted as much as they could get." The emphatically stated conclusion of the report is that the Three-Day Agreement was the source of the troubles, the bit into 'which the boys got their' teeth, and that it must be changed.
It is little short of tragic that this very agreement is currently being renewed, at who knows what new rates of basic pay and overtime. Management has bought Peace. For how long, and with whose money? None of this could have happened in a commercial theatrical enterprise. People on both sides 'here seem to think that public coffers are bottomless: the Arts Council will cough up in the end, so' demand on one side, give in on the other. This is a matter of great public concern. The tragic element is that the standard of performance presented. by the ENOC at the Coliseum is of such excellence that any drastic action which placed the company's work in jeopardy would be. unthinkable.
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