Dallas Black Dance Theatre fires 9 dancers over social media video; city council calls for probe
DALLAS - Dallas City Council members are calling for an investigation into the Dallas Black Dance Theatre after nine dancers were fired last week.
Protestors call it union busting while the theater blames a social media video that the dancers made.
The firings come after the dancers voted to unionize in May. Now councilmembers say they want to know more about what happened because the theatre is getting rent and utilities on the city's dime.
Hundreds gathered in Downtown Dallas Saturday to support the nine fired dancers.
"Last week on Friday at about 4:30 p.m., all of the dancers in the main company of Dallas Black received an email that our letter of intent for next season was rescinded and we were now fired," explained Micah Isaiah, one of the fired dancers.
The dancers voted to unionize in May, and the union went on to file a grievance for unfair labor practices in June.
But DBDT spokesperson James Fuller says it was a video posted on social media and not unionizing that led to the firings.
"Each dancer had been briefed, they had to be in a classroom and walk through the policies that they need to follow, the code of conduct of our professional dancers," he said. "And there’s no question you do have to review that and sign that document. You knew that there were steps in that video, that there were actions in that video that were in violation of that. And they were all told ‘these actions are terminatable offenses.’"
The dancers say there was nothing wrong with their video that was made to the "Family Matters" theme song for social media.
"Introducing each and every one of the dancers in the company, and they said that we were doing vulgar things in the video and self-described shenanigans, which is very untrue," Isaiah said.
Monday, Dallas City Council members said they want to launch an investigation into the firings.
"It does involve us because the city leases a building for $10 a year, a downtown property for $10 a year to this organization. There is some subsidizing of utilities that goes on," said Councilwoman Gay Donnell Willis. "And so, when we have our own coda as far as ethics and behavior, it extends to those who we do business with or have contracts with.
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Councilman Adam Bazaldua agreed.
"What we’ve seen is pretty classic textbook union busting," he said. "I would like to see an investigation."
DBDT Executive Director Senetta Drew told FOX 4 in a statement that "The Dallas Black Dance Theatre has not received any requests or inquiries from the city of Dallas regarding the decision to rescind the letters of intent for dancers who violated company policies… We remain open to addressing any questions or concerns from the city or its representatives, ensuring that our position and the rationale behind our actions are fully understood."
Dallas city staff told council members that they would report back to them at their October meeting.