Broadway had $1.9 billion in ticket sales during its 2025-2026 season — a major comeback after the industry faced closures during COVID-19. But the workers who scrub Broadway theater seats, reset the restrooms, clear the aisles, polish the glass, and remove the trash hope that they’ll see some of the benefits from the industry’s recovery.
A new round of contract talks opened last week between The Broadway League and 32BJ SEIU, which represents workers who work as cleaners, porters, matrons, or restroom attendants, says they are looking for wage increases, protection of their medical benefits without premium sharing, and stronger pension contributions.
Kirth Crawford, a 32BJ bargaining committee member, said the union presented its contract proposal last week, and this week, The Broadway League is expected to present its counterproposal, but has not yet informed the Amsterdam News about the contents of its counterproposal.
“The wages, they could be so much better. That’s how I want to put it,” Crawford said in an interview with the Amsterdam News. “You know, it’s not where people are starving, but with the living increases, it’s like we’re barely hitting the mark. There are people that I talk to that are living check by check. They’re not able to fully pay the rent, and then when they are able to pay their rent, it leaves them nothing else to pay anything else.”
In 2022, about 230 Broadway cleaners, custodians, elevator operators, and restroom attendants represented by 32BJ won a contract that included a $ 3.75-per-hour raise over four years, increased pension contributions, and the continuation of 100% employer-paid family healthcare. This agreement came after pandemic-related contract extensions and years without raises.
Crawford said he has a physically demanding, time-pressured job at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on 46th Street. In some theaters, morning crews do the deep cleaning, while evening staff clean the lobbies, bathrooms, carpets, and remove the trash, before, during, and after performances. “We have split shifts; they’re now doing 8-hour shifts. But before we were coming in from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and then coming back from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., so you had to do two shifts that day, and you weren’t able to get another job,” Crawford said. Those split schedules would dominate an employee’s entire day, Crawford added; many workers would prefer one job that pays enough to live on, rather than a schedule that gives little time for rest and still may not cover the cost of living.
Larger theaters tend to have around 10 or 11 workers on the morning cleaning crew, while only two porters might be assigned to a show shift itself, depending on the theater and its production needs. Crawford also talked about how the intensity of his job has changed as concessions are now allowed to be eaten inside theater auditoriums, and audience behavior has changed. Food, cups, wrappers, playbills, and other trash are left throughout the auditorium, and there is less time to clear it.
“If we had a kid show like ‘The Lion King,’ for instance,” he said, “and you got 1800 kids, you got the juice, the candy, and the potato chips –– all that times 18 on the floor plus the playbills, and you got one hour to pick that all up and vacuum.”
And at some Times Square theaters, cleaners are finding that they are also being assigned to clean the sidewalks, wash away urine, clear off dirty glass and trash. Sometimes they are even employed to urge unhoused people who try to shelter near theater entrances to move along. Those are conditions workers say should be taken into account when management comes to talk with the union about a new contract.
