Unionized teachers and others at the Second City Training Center said Tuesday they have authorized a strike and will set up a picket line proximate to the comedy company’s theaters if their employer refuses to bargain further, with the strike and pickets beginning Jan. 16. They said they will ask audiences not to cross the picket lines.
The dispute involves members of the Association of International Comedy Educators (AICE), part of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. The instructors, musical directors and corporate facilitators have been negotiating a contract with representatives of Second City’s current owner, ZMC, a New York City-based private equity investment firm, for some two years.
“We’ve been at this long enough,” the union said Tuesday.
A Second City spokesperson has said that the company has placed its “best and final offer” on the table. “It includes 31% more pay for our teachers and 21% more for our entire union membership over the agreement’s three-year term,” the December statement said. “It’s time to move forward.”
Second City’s actors and stage managers are separately represented by the Actors’ Equity union. Second City is in the final stages of opening a new theater complex in Brooklyn, New York.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.