To the Editor:

Your front-page article about the compensation of New York City’s unionized stagehands (“Hey, Stars, Be Nice to the Stagehands. You Might Need a Loan,” Dec. 28) betrays a dismaying class bias.

The tone of the article suggests that readers should be at least mildly offended, if not shocked, by the salaries the stagehands earn, even though there are thousands of bankers, lawyers, doctors and corporate executives in this city for whom such salaries, or more, are taken for granted.

While the skills and long work hours of the stagehands are acknowledged in the article, the suggestion is that there is something insidious about working-class people earning so much. The stagehands clearly don’t know their place. And they’re even uppity enough to strike Carnegie Hall.

BRUCE C. VLADECK

New York, Dec. 28, 2013

To the Editor:

Stagehands on the “high” side of compensation are typically those who work 14-hour days with just 10-minute meal breaks. Family time is nearly nonexistent during the performance season. As someone with several relatives in the industry, I have seen firsthand stagehands who have almost missed the birth of their own children because they couldn’t leave during a show.