Thinking About The Better Part Of Valor

Assuming The Metropolitan Opera doesn’t settle the ongoing labor dispute with Musicians beforehand, July 18 may be the earliest date for details to emerge about the recent tentative agreement between the employer and IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees).

July 18 is the date IATSE members plan to hold their ratification meeting so it’s reasonable to assume that will be the earliest we can expect to see reliable details about the agreement’s terms.

Met General Director, Peter Gelb, has a history of playing one union against another and with only one large group unresolved, Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) which represents the orchestra musicians, it will be interesting to see if he sticks to that playbook or decides that a most favored nations approach is the better part of valor as it were.

In English, that means if the terms for the two settled agreements (singers and stagehands) are similar in nature, then the offer to musicians should follow suit. If it doesn’t, it should come as no surprise if things get even uglier.

You can see why July 18 becomes an important date and in the best-case scenario, that discovery could help facilitate a quick close to the musicians’ agreement.