Ten dancers who were fired by the Dallas Black Dance Theatre in August will receive more than $500,000 in compensation and a personal apology from the dance company's leadership, the union representing the dancers says.
The American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) called the settlement agreement with DBDT "historic in its scope."
The National Labor Relations Board largely brokered the agreement over the last month after the same agency found merit in complaints against the legacy dance company over unfair labor practices, including firing the entire dance company in August.
The 10 dancers were fired on Aug. 9. DBDT said then and maintained in successive public statements that the dancers were terminated because of a social media post.
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The dancers voted to join AGMA in May. In response, AGMA said the dance company retaliated by denying benefits to departing dancers, eliminating teaching opportunities for company members, firing a dancer with 14 years of experience, and dismissing the remaining nine dancers.
"This has always been bigger than us," the dancers said in a joint statement Monday. "While this settlement allows our lives to go on and gives us some sense of much-needed closure, we recognize that the fight for accountability and justice at DBDT is far from over."
A representative for the Dallas Black Dance Theatre board of directors emailed NBC 5 late Sunday to say that a settlement agreement had been reached.
"We appreciate the dedication of all the parties who have worked over the past several weeks to reach this agreement," a spokesperson said. "This resolution allows us to move beyond past differences and work with AGMA toward an agreement that supports our dancers and advances DBDT's mission."
In October, a Dallas City Council committee voted to hold about $248,000 in funding from DBDT over concerns the dance company participated in "union-busting," or firing the dancers as a direct result of their vote to unionize earlier in the year.
Last week, the same committee indicated a willingness to move the funding, about 7% of DBDT's budget, to other in-need arts organizations in the city.
An item on Wednesday's Dallas City Council agenda allows for the restoration of the funding if the NLRB finds DBDT cleared of wrongdoing or if it settled with AGMA.
"We need the funding," board president Georgia Scaife told NBC 5 last week.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
