plus pension, annuity and whats made on the side?
IT'S NOT PRACTICE OR A UNION CARD THAT GET STAGEHANDS INTO CARNEGIE HALL IT IS THE LOOP. WHO IS PULLING THE STRINGS BUSINESS MANAGERS??
NOT A RELATIVE OF OFFICERS OR HEADS NO WORK FOR YOU!
WHITE, IRISH/HALF IRISH MALES. VENUE AFTER VENUE.
January 26, 2006 AT CARNEGIE HALL DENNIS O'CONNELL, JOHN CARDINALE, KEN BELTRONE, JOHN GOODSON $300,000 PLUS PENSION AND ANNUITY A YEAR
WHILE THE RANK AND FILE STRUGGLE TO MAKE TIER.
HOW CAN THEY DO A GOOD JOB?
THEY CANNOT! THE CONTRACTS WILL DECLINE. AND IT IS YOUR FAULT OFFICERS AND HEADS.
24 HOURS A DAY ON THE CLOCK, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK,NO SHIFTS TO ALLOW OTHERS TO WORK.
WHEN DO THEY SLEEP?NOT IN THE LOOP NO JOB FOR YOU! WHERE ARE OUR JOBS DEPARTMENT OF LABOR?
Nonprofit salaries
For a donation of between $2,500 and $50,000, you, too, can become a Carnegie Hall Patron. Sound like a deal? After all, your money goes far: Patrons, we're told, help keep ticket prices affordable, subsidize community outreach, and preserve the landmark Carnegie Hall building. Worthy causes all. (In case you were wondering what "affordable" means, tickets for tomorrow night's performance run from $58 to $195.)
What else is Patrons' money spent on? Well, staffing costs, of course. Carnegie Hall is a large organisation, and the director gets paid a large salary: $604,418 in the fiscal year ended June 2004, plus benefits. And then there are Dennis O'Connell, John Cardinale, Kenn Beltrone, and John Goodson. After the director, these men are the highest-paid employees of Carnegie Hall: they all made well over $300,000, before benefits, annuity and pension, in the 2004 fiscal year.
Carnegie Hall Patrons might be scratching their heads at this point, wondering who these people are. After all, they never turn up to thank large donors, and they certainly aren't part of the musical community. What could they do for this non-profit organisation which is worth the $1.48 million that the four of them shared in one year? To find out, the Patrons should look not to Carnegie Hall, but rather to Justin Davidson, who's guest-blogging this week at The Rest Is Noise. I'll spare you the need to click through: it turns out that thes guys are all, um, stagehands. And remember, this isn't a high-tech opera house we're talking about here: it's a concert hall.
Just one more reason to always check out charitable organisations before you start giving them your money.
There are no executive salaries listed for either Carnegie Hall organization in the June, 2005 returns. The only salaries shown are for five stagehands, listed in schedule A as earning from $294,030 to $396,648 in direct compensation, plus benefits. However, the New York Better Business Bureau report indicates that Clive Gillinson, the Executive and Artistic Director, earns $600,000 a year.
IRS Form 990 (a non-profit organization's tax return), which Carnegie filed for the fiscal year ending in June of 2004, is available here. It lists the five highest-paid members of the staff. The late, much missed Robert Harth, who swung from the rigging to scuttle a disastrous merger with the New York Philharmonic topped the list, earning $604,418, plus a benefits package of $141,590. After that, there's not an executive in sight. Nos. 2,3,4 and 5 on the list are all stagehands, who made between $300,000 and $384,000. And for that kind of change, you don't get to keep reconfiguring supposedly supple Zankel Hall, which in theory has three different incarnations but has hardly ever budged out of its starting end-stage mode. The payroll situation is similar at Lincoln Center, where the stagehands are comparatively penurious, but still crowd the top earners list. The crew's biggest moneymaker put in 40-hour weeks and made $216,388 - almost $20,000 more than Nigel Redden, the director of Lincoln Center Festival. The New York Philharmonic uses Lincoln Center's stagehands, too, which explains why the orchestra managed to keep the biggest salaries flowing towards its players - so long as you don't count executive director Zarin Mehta (roughly on a par with Robert Harth) and one well-remunerated independent contractor by the name of Lorin Maazel ($1.9 million). It's enough to make a fiddler wonder whether it wouldn't make a more luxurious life in music to stop scraping strings and start moving chairs instead. –Justin Davidson
How about a stagehand at Carnegie Hall who makes $425,911 - plus $107,041 in contributions to benefits plans and deferred compensation?
New York's high-priced culture club Nonprofit institution Employee Annual compensation
- Carnegie Hall Dennis O'Connell, stagehand $388,325
| Article: Stagehand tops the bill with 382,000 dollar salary - Article from:
- The Scotsman
- Article date:
- January 11, 2000
- Author:
JULIAN BROUWER In New York CopyrightCopyright 2000 The Scotsman. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
FORGET about New York tycoons Donald Trump and Ron Perelman - the big money in the Big Apple is being made by lowly stagehands.
The best-paid Carnegie Hall stagehand t earns $382,066 (GBP 234,396), just $4,000 less than the venue's top executive, according to new figures. The top-earning stagehand at the city's Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts makes $228,463 a year, only $3,000 less than the centre's senior vice president.
Though they are only supposed to earn $30 an hour for their work, the labourers take advantage of a more than generous union contract which guarantees them double and triple time, missed-meal bonuses and other extras.
Four of the five highest-paid employees at ...
Dennis O'Connell from zip code 07093 MAKING A HALF MILLION A YEAR PLUS IN LOCAL ONE AND HE ONLY GAVE THE PAC 700.00 SINCE 1979. DAN GILOON WHY AREN'T YOU ON HIS TAIL. AND THE REST OF THEM? ACCOUNTABILITY. DAN GILOON. DENNIS O'CONNELL. CREEP AND CHEAP SKATE.
Political contributions disclosed by campaign committees to the Federal Election Commission, sorted by name, zip code and employer. The data, from the FEC, covers the years 1979 through 2008.
Candidates
Committees
Dennis O'Connell |
$300 to Political Action Cmte Of The Int'L Alliance Of Theatrical Empl Mov Pict Tech Art And... on September 27, 1999 |
Dennis O'Connell, Stagehand |
$400 to Political Action Cmte Of The Int'L Alliance Of Theatrical Empl Mov Pict Tech Art And... on August 24, 1999 SOURCE WATCHDOG.NET
|
MAKING THIS MUCH 9 YEARS AGO AND ARE STILL RAKING IT IN. WHAT ABOUT US? END THE LOOP. IT PAYS TO BE A STAGEHAND Raking in dough at two landmarks
By DOUGLAS FEIDEN DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, January 10th 2000, 2:11AM
Forget the lottery or the stock market. There's a better way to make a bundle. Just ask some stagehands at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.
How does $382,066 in wages and benefits sound for working as a Carnegie Hall stagehand? You read that right: three-hundred-eighty-two-thousand, sixty-six dollars.
With a union contract that gives them double and triple time, missed-meal bonuses and other extras, the stagehands push themselves to the max moving props and scenery, loading tons of show equipment, doing carpentry and electrical work and other tasks to up their hourly base of $30.
Their incomes set a new standard for blue-collar workers.
"I don't know of anything like this in the history of the American working man," said Kenneth Jackson, editor of "The Encyclopedia of New York City" and a history professor at Columbia University.
In fact, four of the five highest-paid employees at Carnegie Hall are members of Local 1 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, who averaged $334,309 in pay and benefits in 1998, the last year that records were available, the Daily News has learned.
The top backstage earner last year was Dennis O'Connell, 49, of West New York, N.J., who made $382,066, including $297,327 in salary and $84,739 in benefits, as the veteran Carnegie stagehand in charge of props.
Not far behind O'Connell at Carnegie Hall was John Cardinale, of Whitestone, Queens, the stagehand in charge of electrical work, who made $330,610 - $257,285 in salary and $73,325 in benefits.
In contrast, only one executive at the W. 57th St. landmark earned more. Former executive director Judith Arron made $386,131 in salary, with no additional benefits.
At Lincoln Center for the Performing AND CON ARTS, four of the six top employees are stagehands who pulled down an average of $216,979, tax documents show. Only Lincoln Center President Nat Leventhal and Senior Vice President Andre Mirabelli earn more, taking home $525,247 and $231,761, respectively, in salary and benefits.
Union chiefs say crew members work doggedly, often racking up 24-hour days and going weeks without a day off. This allows them to clock hundreds of hours of overtime.
"Sure, the money adds up," said James Claffey, business manager of Local 1. "But you eat your Thanksgiving dinners at Burger King, you never sleep, and you don't get to see your family for Christmas because there's always a show."
Music hall brass say it's a tough job. "The stage crew often works a 10-day stretch without a day off, and sometimes works 48 hours straight," said Franz Xaver Ohnesorg, the executive director of Carnegie Hall.
The reason for this is that the producers and the venue insist that the same crew that rehearsed the show must run the show, arguing that the quality of a production or concert could suffer if a different crew arrived at night.
But experts said the generous salaries can hurt consumers by leading to sky-high ticket prices. At Carnegie Hall, an orchestra seat can sell for as much as $100.
"High compensation levels can have an enormous potential impact on ticket prices," said Martha LoMonaco, theater professor at Fairfield University.
The stagehands' contract provides for double and triple time, missed-meal bonuses, extra pay for up to $500 when concerts are broadcast on TV or recorded for albums, and other special fees.
The premium pay helped Richard Norton, of the upper West Side, ring up $228,463 last year in salary and benefits as chief of stagehands at Avery Fisher Hall, and Artie Connaughton, 47, of Matawan, N.J., earn $204,420 in salary and benefits as crew chief and shop steward at Alice Tully Hall.
"It's a job that exacts its pound of flesh and takes a huge toll on our families," said Connaughton as he examined a sound console during a recent tour of Tully.
Family sacrifice comes with the territory, agreed Frank Ferrante, of North Caldwell, N.J., another stagehand at the 1,096-seat Tully. He made $213,391 in salary and benefits.
"My priorities are my four kids and putting them through college and seeing them in a different line of work," he said.
"Anybody who thinks working a 22-hour day is a picnic never worked a 22-hour day in their life," Terry Dunleavy, another stagehand at Alice Tully Hall, said as he tested backstage lighting for a recent rehearsal of the "Lincoln Center Songbook."
"I love my job here, but it sure takes its toll," said Dunleavy, whose exact salary was not known.
Executives at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall declined to comment, but praised the workers.
"At Lincoln Center, we demand - and receive - the highest level of expertise from our stagehands," said Mirabelli.
Here's how they work hard
for their money:
Overtime. Basic pay averages $30 an hour, and time and a half past eight hours is $45. Weekends are paid at time and a half, as is all work from midnight to 8 a.m. Some holidays are paid double time, or $60, and overtime on holidays and weekends in some cases can hit triple time, or $90.
Performance fees. For working during a concert or show, stagehands get a flat fee of around $100.
Missed-meal bonuses. Management pays double time for an hour if crews work through meal breaks. This golden hour often becomes triple time because stagehands are frequently on time and a half. It can become quadruple time, $120, on some holidays.
Swing time. If stagehands return to work with less than an eight-hour break between shifts, the entire day is paid at double time.
Step-up pay. Special payments can range from $51.24 to $500 for extra work performed during shows or concerts that are broadcast or recorded for TV, radio or CDs.
Graphic: BY THE NUMBERS
Five highest-paid employees
at Carnegie Hall:
Judith Arron, former executive director $386,131
Dennis O'Connell, stagehand $382,066
John Cardinale, stagehand $330,610
John Goodson, stagehand $321,991
James Csollany, stagehand/carpenter $302,569
Five highest-paid employees
at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts:
Nathan Leventhal, president $525,247
Andre Mirabelli, senior vice president $231,761
Richard Norton, stagehand $228,463
Brian Murphy, stagehand $221,571
Robert Jacobi, stagehand $217,052
Source: Internal Revenue Service Form 990. For fiscal year ending June 30, 1998. Note: Arron died in 1998. Salary not yet available for Franz Xaver Ohnesorg, current executive and artistic director.
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