January 22, 2001 AFL-CIO Union Label & Service Trades Department News Release

AFL-CIO Endorses Boycott of Nonunion "Sound of Music"

The AFL-CIO has added the boycott of Troika entertainment of Rockville, Md., and its national tour of Sound of Music to the nationwide list of AFL-CIO-endorsed boycotts.

The boycott was launched by the Actors' Equity Assn. (AEA), the union for professional stage actors, which points out that Troika, the show's tour producer turned aside the union's overtures for an Equity contract for actors involved with the tour.

Troika reportedly is paying most of the show's 30 actors little more than a third of Equity's minimum rates, a very low per diem and providing no paid health benefits or pension payments.

In addition, Equity has brought charges against one of the touring show's starts, Barry Williams, for violating the union's constitution by working in the show. Williams is best known for playing Greg Brady on the popular 1970s TV comedy, "The Brady Bunch."

The union also is conducting informational picketing at several of the theaters where the performances of the touring production are scheduled.

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