Labor negotiations with Linc Cavalieri were scripted.
All of the buildings Linc ran in Detroit were fully unionized. “We were never anti-labor, but you have to conduct labor negotiations and, when you do, you are on opposite sides of the fence,” said Bob Cavalieri, Linc’s son, who is currently working for ASM Global (formerly SMG).
Over the years, Linc developed a technique. The union would send over its demands. Linc would then draft his own list of demands. “You have to have a list of demands in every situation,” Bob heard his dad say many times.
When Bob was working with his dad, he would be recruited for the negotiation. There would usually be a certain topic Linc did not want to negotiate. He was inflexible. Their script would focus on that topic.
One year, at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) wanted double-time on Sundays. That was off the table, because in the arena business normal hours are nights, weekends and holidays. There was no room for change, no chance Linc was going to open that gate. You don’t pay double-time during normal business hours.
When the IATSE negotiator brought up double-time on Sundays, Linc politely said:
“The answer is no. That answer is not going to change, so please don’t bring that up in the negotiations again.”
Inevitably, they would bring it up again. “Our workers deserve double time on Sundays, just Sundays.”
“I told you, I am not talking about that. Don’t bring that up in the negotiations again.”
And they did, because they wanted to talk about it.
“I told you I was NEVER going to talk about that. If you bring that up one more time, I am getting up and I am walking out of this negotiation.”
And they did.
Linc, as scripted, would take the list of the union’s demands, throw it across the table and stomp out of the room.
Bob remained sitting in the room, witnessing the shocked silence.
“Well, I guess this negotiation is over.”
Linc would not go back to his office, because he knew the union negotiators would go there looking for him. He would get in his car and leave. He was not to be found.
“We’d schedule another negotiation,” Bob recalled. And just as inevitably as their obsession with the topic the first round, they figured out they should stop bringing it up by the second.
Because that was number one on the venue’s list of demands. Linc knew he wasn’t going there. — Based on a true story as told to Linda Deckard by Bob Cavalieri.
PHOTO: Pat Darr, of Washington, D.C., venue fame, and Linc Cavalieri, the venue mayor of Detroit at an IAAM convention.