Ballet Winners

I recently received my Equity Magazine from the Alliance and was having a flick through. Within the pages of this National Mag was a segment about our WA Ballet dancers and their recent Pay Claim success. This incident hit the news some time back (you may recall I wrote something about it also) and the Alliance made sure that as many people heard about as possible. It worked.

The fact that audience members were not only applauding successful productions of Debris back in March (2007), they were also crying "More pay for Dancers" shows how many people took this issue seriously. Goergina Hagerty took on a very daunting role of spokes-person for the Alliance and dancers.

When Ballet Management admitted to the underpaid wages of their dancers, they undermined their other contradictory comments claims that the dancers' demands were "extraordinary."

The results was (of course) that dancers' underpaid status was recognised and adjusted. According to Mr Carpenter, "Their pay claim is more than justified."

What strikes me most about this article is the final quote from Ms Hagerty. "The most important thing is to be united, and the way to do that in this day and age is to be in Alliance's Equite Section." Whatever group you are in, you have to in it to be a part of it.

Article by David Cohen - WA base freelance journalist.