Exclusive: Met chorus is silenced by asbestos

We hear that chorus rehearsals at the Metropolitan Opera were stopped yesterday after singers came to work and found asbestos crews ripping out suspected asbestos.

Rigoletto went ahead as planned last night but chaos and confusion prevailed all day.

Here’s a slew of email son a day when internal communications completely broke down.

Dear Members of the Company,

Tonight’s performance of Rigoletto will be taking place as scheduled. I appreciate the patience and understanding of those company members who didn’t have the chance to rehearse earlier today. Thanks.

Best wishes,

Peter (Gelb)

From: Metropolitan Opera Chorus Committee <metchoruscommittee@gmail.com>

Dear chorus,

Thank you all for your patience this morning. We arrived at the Met to a large number of employees standing on the plaza, and an email from our General Manager saying that there was no need to worry about asbestos. Among the hearsay and incomplete, bad, or nonexistent information, we were working as quickly as we could with management and Local One to determine whether it was safe to enter the building. We want to acknowledge the fear and uncertainty that many of you, and we, felt this morning.

We are acutely aware of the gaps in communication that created this situation in the first place. The Met acknowledged that the communication today was unacceptable, but it doesn’t fix the problem. We will continue to do our best to fill in those gaps, and will discuss the failures on our end to communicate as efficiently as we would like in this situation.

We’re sharing some information below from Dan and Andrea, who have the full picture of what went on today from a safety perspective. The results of yesterday’s air quality test, which indicated that it was safe to work, are also available upon request, and we anticipate the results of today’s independent test to be consistent with those results. It’s our understanding that our sister unions, Local One, Local 802, Local 764, and Local 32BJ have returned to work, and we have received confirmation that tonight’s show will continue as planned. If you have further concerns, management has requested that you contact Joe Barnes (jbarnes@metopera.org), and as always, please feel free to bring a union delegate to any meeting if you wish.

Thank you again for your patience, and please see Dan’s message below.

All my best,

Lee, on behalf of the Chorus Committee

Good afternoon,

Andrea and I spoke with David Feheley (the Met’s Technical Director) today and saw the site of fiberglass insulation removal that was done from November 4-8. David related that the company the Met regularly uses to do abatement and removal (Abatement Unlimited Inc.) worked on a site on C-Level that is inside a locked mechanical room to remove fiberglass insulation from a duct. The work was part of a larger project of upgrading the fire protection system in the building, in which they cut a square of insulation (about a 10-inch square) from a duct to attach a heat sensor. While they did the work, out of an abundance of caution, they tested the air for fibers to make sure there was no unsafe contamination. All the tests came back as being safe.

The problem arose because the company wrongly posted an asbestos abatement notice at the stage door, even when the job did not involve asbestos. Apparently one of the night crew saw the notice and noted that there weren’t proper safety precautions in place on site. He spoke to a crew member on the job who said (wrongly) that they were in the building doing asbestos abatement. It is unknown whether that person was unsure of the specifics of the job, but there is no asbestos at this site. There are instances of asbestos in the building which have been worked on by this same company, but in those cases the area is tented in plastic and the workers wear the appropriate gear to protect themselves and the building from asbestos contamination.

Local One did not trust that the Met had done its due diligence, and asked that an independent company come in to test for asbestos contamination. We went with the workman to the site on C-Level and he set up his gear to do two tests. The results of the first one should be done by 4 or 4:30 this afternoon. It tests the presence of fibers in the air (it is the same test that the original company did). The other will take longer, and tests specifically for asbestos. We asked him about the test results provided by the other company, and he said he knows the company and trusts them – they would not lie about the safety of a work site, he said. He also said that even the fiber testing they performed indicates that it is not an asbestos site.

We trust that it is safe to work in the building. Of course we will be interested in knowing the results of the tests, but working in the building is safe. The fact that the company mistakenly put out the asbestos notice (and that the Met allowed it to be posted) is concerning, to say the least. As is the lack of communication from the Met about our safety. I believe Local One has decided that it is safe to start work on the Rigoletto set.

Thank you all, and if you have further questions, please let us know.

Dan & Andrea

Dear Company Members,

As a follow-up to Peter’s earlier message, an additional round of air monitoring testing has been completed today. The results have confirmed that we are under the regulatory limits of 0.01 fibers per cubic centimeter as outlined by the NYC Department of Environmental Protection. We feel confident in these results which confirm that the Met is a safe work environment.

Melisa

Melisa Puglisi, (she/her)

Safety Director

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