Proposition Strike Is in Second Week

A labor dispute between the actors and management of The Proposition may force the Boston area's longest-running show to close down permanently.

Allen Albert, artistic director and president of the board of Proposition Workshops, Inc., said earlier this week that when the board meets this week to discuss the strike "one of the options that will be seriously considered is to close the show." The nine actors and four musicians of The Proposition, a five-year-old improvisational group, have been on strike in Inman Square since September 10 when negotiations between representatives for both sides broke down.

The negotiations resumed briefly last Friday but ended after Albert and his lawyer walked out of the federal labor mediator's office because the cast refused to resume performances until he agreed to discuss substantive issues of the dispute.

Albert said that he would have bargained with the actors if they agreed to return to work.

At issue are the right of the actors to establish a grievance procedure, their right to take sparetime jobs, general working conditions and wages.

Each actor currently makes around $105 per week--about $87 take-home pay--for what the group calls "unlimited working hours." Albert says he can afford only a $20-per-week pay increase, because, he says, Proposition Workshops, Inc., is a non-profit corporation that is operating on a deficit-spending budget.