AGMA has become aware of a letter dated September 30 sent by DBDT leadership to community partners in what appears to be an attempt to save face ahead of the new season. While most of the letter is not worth our energy, AGMA feels it necessary to address a few specific falsehoods presented by Executive Director Zenetta Drew.
Two things here. 1) “Unfounded”? We have paper trails and receipts. The facts are clear, and dismissing them doesn’t make them any less true. 2) It's interesting that DBDT claims they never denied COBRA coverage. On September 3, Stephanie Hawthorne of DBDT explicitly informed fired dancer Derick McKoy via email that he would be denied COBRA coverage. Following this, AGMA Counsel Martha Kinsella contacted the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) office in Dallas, who confirmed that DBDT's official position was to deny COBRA coverage. It wasn’t until September 14—after this inquiry—that dancers received emails (NOT from DBDT, btw) informing them they could elect COBRA coverage.
Not much to say here about this copy-paste error, resulting in a repeated sentence. It’s no coincidence that the one part of the letter dedicated to being open to working with AGMA appears to be an afterthought.
With all due respect: huh? AGMA’s National Organizing Director Griff Braun sent DBDT a bargaining request letter on May 31, just two days after the dancers won their union election. The subject line of that email was “AGMA - Bargaining Request Letter,” and the first sentence of the letter read, “The Union is reaching out to discuss next steps regarding bargaining.” Between then and August 9, when all the dancers were fired, AGMA corresponded extensively with DBDT’s attorneys about the information we requested to prepare for and to engage in good faith bargaining rather than retaliating against their dancers for exercising their federal right to have a voice at work. AGMA continued correspondence with DBDT’s attorneys about requested information even after the dancers were fired. And even though we believe management fired their Main Company dancers unlawfully, we sent a subsequent bargaining demand with proposed bargaining dates on September 20. Management finally acknowledged our outreach today, October 2. Hope this clears THAT up!