NEW YORK — The Great White Way will surely go dark if a deal isn’t struck between Broadway producers and another one of its most important labor unions.

American Federation of Musicians Local 802, the union that represents 1,200 musicians on Broadway, announced on Monday that its members voted to authorize a strike amid ongoing negotiations with the Broadway League for a new standard contract.

The group is the latest group of live New York City-based theater workers to authorize a strike action in an effort to complete a deal for improvements to wages, health care coverage and job and wage security.

The union said it has been working on Broadway without a contract since Aug. 31. Their demands were detailed Oct. 1 in an open letter to the Broadway League, the trade organization of 700 producers, theater owners and operators, and general managers of Broadway productions.

Around 98% of voting members voted to authorize a strike. The vote does not mean a strike is immediately underway, as additional bargaining sessions are scheduled for the near future.

Broadway musicians previously went on strike for five days in 2003.

The last strike action on Broadway was initiated by stagehands in the fall of 2007, which kept most shows dark for 19 days.

Over the last year, Broadway generated $1.89 billion in ticket sales and attracted 14.7 million attendees. According to the Broadway League, the 2024-2025 season is highest-grossing season in history,

“On the heels of the most successful season in history, the Broadway League wants the working musicians and artists who fueled that very success to accept wage cuts, threats to health care benefits, and potential job losses,” AFM Local 802 President Bob Suttmann said. “Faced with such an egregious erosion of their working conditions, Local 802 Broadway musicians and other artists are ready to leverage every ounce of their collective power, up to and including a strike.”

“Committing to anything less would mean sacrificing far too many hard-won gains,” he added.

The musicians’ labor move follows Actors’ Equity Association, who authorized strike action earlier this month. That group represents more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers.

If the actors go on strike, it would affect 26 out of 31 shows on Broadway.

Because they are operating under different contracts, a handful of shows — “Beetlejuice,” “Mamma Mia!,” “Punch” the Scott Rudin-produced “Little Bear Ridge Road” and Lincoln Center’s new revival of “Ragtime” — will able to go forward amid labor actions.

“Good-faith negotiations happen at the bargaining table, not in the press,” a rep for the Broadway League told the Daily News Monday. “We value our musicians and we are committed to working in good faith to get a fair contract done.”

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