Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Stagehands at New York’s largest downtown dance venue voted yesterday to join the same union that represents workers on Broadway and at such venues as Carnegie Hall. The vote could mean higher pay for them and increased expenses for already financially stressed dance troupes.

Stagehands at the nonprofit Joyce Theater voted 12 to zero to join Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Half that number are full-time workers; the rest are part-time. The powerful union struck Broadway in 2007 and negotiated a contract at Carnegie Hall that resulted in a props supervisor earning $530,044 last year.

Top stagehands at the Joyce were paid about $78,000 in 2007-08, plus benefits, according to the theater’s tax return. Joyce Executive Director Linda Shelton said that as a result, she may be forced to raise the weekly rent for the 472-seat house above the current $23,000 to cover increased operating expenses.

“I’m concerned that some dance companies won’t be able to afford us anymore,” Shelton said in an interview. A second, smaller venue, Joyce Soho, will also be covered under the new contract. In all, 16 stagehands’ jobs will be affected, according to union spokesman Bruce Cohen.

The Joyce, with an annual budget of about $8 million, had a deficit of $264,000 in the year ending in August, Shelton said. Corporate donations for the year dropped 50 percent.

‘Progressive’ Increases

At a celebratory lunch following the vote, Local One President James J. Claffey Jr. said the union would seek “progressive” pay increases while aiming to protect the theater as well as its new members’ jobs.

“We’re not going to tailor Madison Square Garden’s finances to the Joyce Theater,” he said.

Added Laurie Benoit, a dancer, choreographer and one of eight women who work part-time as Joyce stagehands: “Nobody is looking to sink the business.”

Before the vote, 133 of the 3,000 Local One members were women, Claffey said. The union represents stagehands in Manhattan, Staten Island, the Bronx and Westchester and Putnam counties, north of New York.

Both sides said a rift began forming about two years ago, when management called weekly meetings with stagehands to update work rules at the Joyce. Shelton said there were a variety of issues, such as a plan for staffing so-called talk-backs after performances, where artists take questions from audience members.

‘Encroaching Plan’

“It was a slow, encroaching plan on their part,” Geoff Freeman, the Joyce’s audio engineer, said of the theater management. “We didn’t know what was going on. We figured we would look for representation.”

Local One members pay dues of 4 percent of their pay, and receive health and other benefits. Claffey said he would work closely with the new members in negotiating their first union contract.

As for Carnegie Hall, a spokeswoman declined several requests to explain how its top stagehand, Dennis O’Connell, made $530,044 in salary and benefits in the fiscal year that ended in June 2008. Nor did she explain how the four other members of its full-time crew had an average income of $430,543 during the same period, according to its tax return.

To contact the reporter on this story: Philip Boroff in New York at pboroff@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 27, 2009 00:00 EDT