Opera Colorado workers have won their union with a 91-8 vote. The National Labor Relations Board posted the results Monday.
The collective bargaining unit artists voted for will include solo singers, stage directors, assistant stage directors, stage managers, assistant stage managers, choreographers, solo and ensemble dancers, chorus members, and singers participating in the company’s Artists in Residence program. They’ll join the U.S. labor union for dance, choral and opera workers, American Guild of Musical Artists, also known as AGMA. In an online statement, AGMA said it hopes negotiations for Opera Colorado workers’ first collective bargaining agreement will “commence shortly.”
“I think this is a ringing declaration,” said Joshua Zabatta, who has sung with Opera Colorado’s chorus, as well as some solo roles, since 2016. “We made it very clear, with an almost 92% vote, we want change and we want to make art in a creative and supportive environment where we have the tools that we need.”
Director of marketing and communications Jennifer Colgan shared a statement on behalf of the organization: “Opera Colorado respects the decision of our employees to unionize, and we are committed to engaging in open and constructive dialogue with the union representatives. Our priority remains to foster a collaborative and productive work environment while maintaining our commitment to artistic excellence and arts education.”
Zabatta was present for the virtual vote tally, and said he could feel his anxiety melting away as a NLRB representative read off and held up more and more yes votes and it became clear that a majority favored unionizing. There were 160 people eligible to vote.
Being a Denver-based artist meant the victory had additional significance for Zabatta.
“Looking back to when I first worked with them, I remember being like, ‘OK, they’re doing all the bells and whistles in the show and they have great singers,” he said, adding that, in his mind, becoming a union shop will only add to the company’s standing. “This is huge.”
Following Monday’s vote tally, the opera company and the artists have five business days to file any objections to the election, according to Kayla Blado, director and press secretary for the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs/National Labor Relations Board. If no one contests the election, then the results will be officially certified.
In its latest Annual Field Report, the North American service organization Opera America lists Opera Colorado as one of 33 U.S. professional opera organizations within its membership that has an operating budget of $3 million or more. If the Opera Colorado union vote results are certified, then nearly two-thirds of those companies will be AGMA shops.
“I’m really happy for these artists. This was a long process and it was a tough fight,” AGMA’s national organizing director, Griff Braun, told The Colorado Sun. “Several of those artists stepped up and were willing to be witnesses in the (NLRB) hearing. That’s not easy. That takes some bravery.”
The win in Colorado also makes a bit of history for the union itself. According to AGMA, it’s been decades since a “wall-to-wall” or full-shop unit — meaning it includes all onstage and backstage employees the labor union typically represents— has successfully organized at a U.S. opera company.
Move to unionize began in spring
Opera Colorado artists signed their cards to unionize last spring. When the company did not voluntarily recognize the workers’ hope to join AGMA, the labor union filed a petition for an election with NLRB. Both the employer and workers then had their chance to make their case before the federal agency during a hearing over Zoom in late June.
Workers told The Colorado Sun then that the effort to unionize came from a desire to establish a stronger collective voice, one that would enable them to negotiate better pay and workplace protections. Choristers have been paid modestly at a per-production rate, and some of them felt undervalued and underpaid, and disenfranchised from being able to bring concerns to leadership.
Their efforts to organize came on the heels of a contentious, and public, labor dispute at Central City Opera.
In late September, the NLRB granted Opera Colorado workers the opportunity to vote, by mail, on whether to form a union.
Yet winning a union election and getting an employer to recognize it is only the initial step in “becoming a fully functioning union workplace,” Braun said. The next is negotiating the first collective bargaining agreement and the preparations that go into that.
“An organizing committee will be formed. There’s a lot of communication with the broader group in terms of identifying various things they would like to see in a contract, things that either they want to improve upon, or things they like about the work at Opera Colorado and want to memorialize in a union contract,” Braun said. “The artists lead the way. Their priorities are the priorities for bargaining.”
It’s too soon to say what the timeline of negotiations could look like, Braun added.
Zabatta thinks having protections codified in a union contract can help “take fear and worry out of the equation” for artists.
“It frees me to do what I do better… I know that I’m supported. I can bring my best self to that job, foster creativity and support my colleagues the way they need to be supported,” he said.
Freelance journalist Stephanie Wolf, who reported this story, was a member of AGMA while dancing professionally for the 2011-12 Metropolitan Opera season.