Radio City Music Hall's Rockettes opened their Christmas Spectacular yesterday, despite orchestra members being either on strike and/or locked out (considering they showed up to play yesterday and were met by security guards, we'd say the latter) due to long-winded contract negotiations. Thus yesterday's performance was set to a canned soundtrack — which, thankfully, didn't prevent the enjoyment of 9-year-old Billy Ward of Springfield, Mass.

Late yesterday, Radio City's 35-piece orchestra walked out of contract negotiations, forcing the music hall to cancel final rehearsals for the Christmas Spectacular, which was scheduled to open tonight. Orchestra members currently get paid $1600 per week for 2 performances, daily, 6 days a week. While the musicians' union accepted a new contract offer from management, union leaders claim management suddenly decided not to sign the new deal. As such, the musicians walked and members of the stagehands union followed.

We're never really able to get ourselves too terribly worked up over these periodic grad-student-union kerfuffles. Perhaps this is because we received enough pro-union indoctrination in our childhood to last us a lifetime. Perhaps this is because we never much liked our TAs. Perhaps this is because we were rejected from Yale. Or perhaps it's because the bedraggled grad students never had a celebrity spokesperson.

If true, going on strike is the first thing — not getting you where you're supposed to go when you're supposed to get there, not getting your suitcase there, too — Northwest has ever had a good plan for. Swell.