PACKARD MUSIC HALL The curtain goes down on stage workers union

The hall is now using independent contractors for the work.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees have been setting up and tearing down the stage for events at W.D. Packard Music Hall for about 50 years, but that tradition appears to be over.
The roughly 55 members of Local 101, which covers Niles, Warren and Youngstown, had been working without a contract since August 2001, but the Packard Board of Trustees severed that agreement earlier this year.
Members conducted a press conference Friday morning in front of the hall.
"All we want is a fair contract with the hall," said member David Flasck, who has been working at the hall since 1973. "We don't want to be city or hall employees."
Letter from union
But Christopher Stephenson, hall manager, and board member Paul McCombs referred to a letter the union president, Richard Holzschuh, sent to city Auditor David Griffing last month.
"Due to the hall management's increasing control over the individuals performing stage work at W.D. Packard, it is now Local 101's contention and firm believe that these individuals are employees of the hall and the city of Warren," the letter, dated June 1, says.
The Packard board is a separate entity from the city, McCombs said.
City employees must follow residency requirements and civil service rules. The park board is not the party to be negotiating with Warren city employees, McCombs said.
Flasck said having city employees in the auditor's office do the work in processing payments for events is a burden to city taxpayers.
"We just want to get back to work," he said. "We don't feel it's right that the city of Warren foots the bill for these things."
Altered invoices
Don Monaco, union recording secretary, read a prepared statement saying that invoices submitted by union members for work done at the hall had been "altered without union knowledge or consent" and members received less money than the original invoice had billed for.
Stephenson said the board was willing to continue negotiations and continue to pay the $13.01 hourly called for in the previous pact, but wasn't willing to pay what he calls the "gingerbread rate."
He was referring to provisions in the former agreement,, which called for union members to be paid overtime for events lasting more than three hours.
McCombs estimated that about $30,000 was paid last year to the union.
"Nobody is getting rich off of this," he said.
Stephenson added that productions at the hall average about two stagehands each. The hall is now using independent contractors for the work, he said.
McCombs said they'd still be negotiating if the union hadn't sent a letter saying they were city and hall employees.
"If they had rescinded their letter, they'd be working the Fourth of July," he said.
denise_dick@vindy.com