San Antonio Symphony Musicians File Legal Charges

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Although it feels like it has been flying under the radar a bit in light of events in Indianapolis and Atlanta, events in San Antonio reached a new level on 9/4/2012 when the musicians of the San Antonio Symphony (SAS) issued a press statement to announce they filed an NLRB charge against the SAS for “unilaterally chang[ing] wages, hours, and conditions of employment of employees employed in a bargaining unit for which the charging party is the exclusive representative; and failed and refused to bargain in good faith with the charging party.”

The SAS situation is intriguing in that it is the polar opposite of what’s been unfolding in Indianapolis where the board of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra has been launching PR salvos at musicians claiming they have been unwilling to negotiate within a reasonable time frame.

Read the complete SAS Musician press statement with link to NLRB charge and cover letter.

Musicians File NLRB Charges

September 4, 2012 – In September 2011, with the previous contract expired, the new concert season scheduled to begin soon, and negotiations for a new contract not making progress, the musicians offered to work under the terms of the previous agreement while we continued to negotiate. The previous agreement provided the musicians $31,350 base annual salary, which is significantly lower than comparable major orchestras and a significant obstacle both to attracting future high quality musicians and to maintaining our present world-class symphony.

We made this unique proposal to make sure the subscribers got their concerts and the board could continue fundraising. We proposed this resolution nearly a year ago with the understanding that negotiations for a new agreement would continue. Management accepted our proposal as a way forward. However, in the nearly one year that has passed, management has yet to give us an economic proposal in spite of our repeated requests to negotiate.

We are now forced to file legal charges with the National Labor Relations Board in order to protect the musicians’ legal rights. We are disappointed in management’s failure to negotiate with us and we are sad to have to take this action. We love our community. Reasonable economic progress is long overdue, and is absolutely necessary to secure our future as a world-class symphony orchestra for this wonderful community, especially with the state of the art Tobin Center for Performing Arts scheduled to open in 2014.

Please direct any questions to the union’s Negotiating Committee Chair, Craig Sorgi, at 210-259-7258. The actual filing and its cover letter may be seen here: NLRB charge and cover letter.

The San Antonio Symphony is the city’s resident professional orchestra. Our impact reaches far beyond our home at the Majestic Theater. We educate, inform, entertain and infuse our community with music of the highest quality.

Talent – Our musicians come from all over the world and have studied at the world’s finest conservatories and universities. We also perform across the United States and around the globe – from Korea to South America to Europe and Israel.
Service – Our performance season includes great classical repertoire, pops concerts, free community concerts and educational concerts.
Regional Impact – We travel throughout South Texas to perform for the citizens of surrounding communities.
Mentorship – Our musicians offer private instruction to hundreds of students throughout the region. We are faculty members at every major area university and work privately with younger students, as well as volunteering support for area public school music programs.

If you’re interested in listening in on a closed door style conversation about the state of the field within the context of current labor disputes, then you’re in luck as Texas Public Radio (TPR) published an uncharacteristically casual and frank conversation I had with host John Clare on 9/5/2012. Although it was most certainly an interview recorded for the purpose of broadcasting, it comes across much more like a casual yet earnest conversation that just so happened to get recorded. The material was recorded on Labor Day, Monday 9/3/2012 so don’t forget that everything in Atlanta and Indianapolis had yet to explode.

My thanks to John Clare and TPR for providing such a luxurious amount of time to really dig into the good, the bad, and the ugly going on right now. There are two segments, one at the top of the page and the remaining interview is available at the end. If a Good Samaritan reader out there has the time and is so inclined to put together a transcription of the conversation, please let me know and I’ll be happy to give you loads of credit and you can plug whatever you like.

[ilink url=”http://www.tpr.org/news/2012/09/news12090405.html” style=”tick”]Listen to the Texas Public Radio interview.[/ilink]