Pact Ends Dispute on Payment for Performers at Inauguration

All singers and dancers, both union and non-union, who appear in President Reagan’s inaugural celebration will be paid union wages and will work under union job conditions, union and inaugural committee leaders agreed in Washington late Monday.

Unions protested last week when the inaugural committee advertised in the trade publication Backstage asking for “non-union theatrical performers” who must be “clean cut, All-American types” and willing to work without pay for a week.

Union leaders charged that the advertisement was, as one put it, “the clearest evidence yet that this (Reagan) Administration is completely anti-union.”

A suit was filed charging the inaugural committee with violating federal minimum wage and anti-discrimination laws because the committee wanted performers to work without pay and because the words “clean cut, All-American types” implied that it wanted only white entertainers.

The agreement reached Monday does not call for the employment of union workers, nor does it include an apology from the committee for the initial call for “non-union” performers.

But it does stipulate that the performers will work “under rates and conditions of the American Guild of Variety Artists,” and that all non-union performers will receive triple AGVA scale or $375 for their engagement in Washington. They will also get transportation costs and other expenses and employer contributions to the AGVA pension and welfare funds.

The agreement was signed by Robert Jani, producer for the inauguration, and John Hall, assistant national secretary of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, on behalf of all unions in the performing arts.