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Labor Unrest Hits Ballet Theater, and Dancers Consider a Strike

American Ballet Theater dancers performing in “Swan Lake” at the Metropolitan Opera House in June.Credit...Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

In the latest sign of turmoil in an unusually tumultuous New York ballet season, the dancers at American Ballet Theater voted early Thursday to authorize a strike should their tense negotiations with the company’s management fail to yield an acceptable contact proposal.

The company’s dancers and stage managers, who have been negotiating with management since April and whose last contract expired at the end of July, took the vote after talks stalled amid questions over how much the company should contribute to their retirement plans. The threat of a strike comes as Ballet Theater plans to go on tour at the end of January to Washington; Detroit; Lincoln, Neb.; and Chicago. It plans to tour Asia in March.

The labor unrest comes during a difficult moment in the dance world. Peter Martins, who led New York City Ballet for more than three decades, retired this month as the company investigated accusations (which he has denied) that he engaged in sexual harassment and verbal and physical abuse over the years. And last month one of Ballet Theater’s brightest stars, Marcelo Gomes, resigned after an accusation of sexual misconduct.

Leonard Egert, the national executive director of the American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents Ballet Theater’s dancers and stage managers, said that retirement benefits had emerged as a key sticking point. He said that after the last recession hit, the company eliminated its contributions to the workers’ defined contribution retirement plans for a year, and then restored them at half their previous level — at 3.75 percent of their income, down from 7.5 percent. He said that the dancers were seeking modest increases to get back to the old level.

Noting the long hours and hard work put in by the members of the company, Mr. Egert said in a statement that they “all deserve to be able to retire from dance with dignity and respect and payments better reflecting what they have given to the company throughout the years.”

He confirmed that the vote had been taken after being asked about it by The New York Times. Kelly Ryan, a spokeswoman for Ballet Theater, declined to discuss the negotiations in any detail. “We are disappointed that A.G.M.A. leadership has decided to play out the final stages of our dancer negotiations publicly,” she said in an email. “We are continuing to negotiate in good faith and hope to come to an agreement.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: Ballet Theater Dancers Authorize a Strike. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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