SEIU Local 32BJ reached a tentative agreement July 18 with the Broadway League covering cleaners and porters at more than 30 theaters, securing a $5/hour wage increase, defined benefit pension gains, healthcare safeguards, and improved paid leave — after a strike authorization vote in late June gave the union real leverage.

Broadway's cleaners and porters — the workers who scrub the seats, mop the lobbies, and ready the houses every night — reached a tentative agreement July 18 with the Broadway League, securing a $5-per-hour wage increase, pension gains, healthcare safeguards, improved paid leave, and strengthened anti-discrimination protections across more than 30 Broadway venues.

The deal was negotiated by SEIU Local 32BJ, which represents building service workers at houses stretching from the Ambassador Theatre to the broader theater district. The Broadway League, the industry's trade and production association, was the counterparty at the table.

The wage increase is the headline number, though the base rate it builds from — the starting wage for porters and cleaners under the expiring contract — was not immediately confirmed. Also in the package: improvement to the defined benefit pension, a plan type that's increasingly rare in private-sector service work, and healthcare coverage protections. The union cited paid leave improvements as well.

What put the union in position to get there: members at 30-plus venues voted in late June to authorize a work stoppage if the Broadway League refused to settle. The authorization didn't produce a strike; it produced a contract.

"We risked our lives during COVID to make sure Broadway could safely reopen," said Martha Aristizabal, a porter at the Ambassador Theatre. "We work long nights and weekends, often missing major milestones with family and loved ones, to do the hard work it takes to put on each and every performance. This victory honors all that we've put in over the years. By winning wage and pension increases, improving paid leave, and protecting our health care, we can dedicate more to taking care of ourselves and enjoying time with the people we care about."

Broadway building service workers occupy an unglamorous corner of the theater industry — invisible to audiences but essential to every performance. The $5/hour raise and the defined-benefit pension hold are the kind of outcomes that take years of organizing to reach; the strike authorization made clear that Local 32BJ's members were ready to push to get there.

The tentative agreement is pending member ratification.