News conferences held over the weekend did not calm spirits between Broadway stagehands and the League of Theatres and Producers, with more than two dozen plays and musicals remaining closed because of the current strike.

The Broadway strike started on Friday, with some 27 shows, including “Rent,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Mamma Mia!” and “Wicked” being shut down. No settlement has been found yet.

News conferences held Saturday and Sunday gave striking stagehands and theater producers a chance to express their woes, complaints, wishes and demands once more, but neither side seemed prepared to shift its perspective.

During the league’s news conference Saturday, members complained that under current union rules they are required to keep workers on the job even when they are not necessary and called this practice “featherbedding,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

James J. Claffey Jr., president of Local 1 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, declared Sunday that the dissatisfied stagehands would not reprise work until producers started acting “honorably” at the negotiating table.

“We want respect at the table,” Claffey said, as quoted by the Associated Press. “If there's no respect, they will not see Local 1 at the table. The lack of respect is something we are not going to deal with.”

He said that three months of talks have brought no positive changes, as the league recently decided to introduce working rules the union had not agreed to. The union's 2,200 stagehands – people who move the scenery, electricians, carpenters etc - have been without a contract since July 31.

Union representatives also expressed disapproval with use of the term “featherbedding.”

Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of League of Theatres and Producers, argued that the union “refused to budge on nearly every issue” and said Local 1 wants to protect “wasteful, costly and indefensible rules that are embedded like dead weights in contracts so obscure and old that no one truly remembers how, when or why they were introduced.”

Local 1 has protested against cuts, demanding compensating financial concessions in the event of staffing levels being reduced, according to the Times. The paper notes that the strike costs New York and the theater district an estimated $17 million a day, quoting the leagues’ estimations.