With Broadway in full swing for the busy holiday season, the 250 men and women who work as porters, cleaners, elevator operators and matrons in 32 of the 40 theaters on Broadway will vote whether to authorize their bargaining committee to call a strike if necessary. Prior to the vote, the workers, represented by 32BJ SEIU, will join a boisterous rally with hundreds of other 32BJ members to call on the Broadway League that represents theater owners to pay decent wages, and provide improved access to healthcare and other benefits.

New York City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, Chairman of the Council’s cultural affairs committee, and Council Member Dan Garodnick will join the rally, along with representatives of the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds, an alliance of 11 unions that includes Actors’ Equity and the stagehands’ union.

In keeping with the spirit of Broadway, actors on stilts from the famed Bread and Puppet Theater Company will perform.

WHAT: A vote on whether to authorize strike at 32 Broadway theaters, and boisterous, theatrical rally outside Broadway League’s offices.

WHEN: 1 p.m., Wednesday, December 12, 2012

WHERE: Outside 729 Seventh Avenue, between 48th and 49th streets

WHO: NYC Council Members Jimmy Van Bramer and Dan Garodnick.

32BJ officers and 500 workers including the cleaners, porters and elevator operators at 32 of the 40 theaters on Broadway.

Representatives of the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds.

With 125,000 members in eight states, including 70,000 in New York, 32BJ is the largest property services union in the country and the largest private-sector union in New York State.