Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
An article by Janet Tu in the 3/26/2018 edition of The Seattle Times reports that the Seattle Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and its musicians recently came to terms on a new four year collective bargaining agreement. By the end of the new term, musician base salary will increase 11.4 percent. But what’s really interesting is language about a major change to the musicians’ defined benefit pension plan. I’ll be reaching out to …
The San Antonio Symphony (SAS) negotiations took an ugly turn late Wednesday evening with the revelation that not only is a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) becoming less likely, but the successorship deal that would ultimately transfer governance to a new nonprofit is falling apart as well. In order to prevent these discussions from devolving into a hopelessly confusing mess of acronyms, we’re going to clarify who’s who by using some …
One major development we missed last week amid the orchestra compensation reports was the class-action lawsuit filed against a host of defendants associated with the American Federation of Musicians & Employers’ Pension Fund (AMF-EPF). Filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the suit brings action against the defendants for “for breach of fiduciary duties and other violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. § 1001, et seq.” …
On 1/17/2017 we examined the growing problems within the American Federation of Musicians & Employers’ Pension Fund (AFM-EPF) that led to the Board of Trustees to send a letter to plan members explaining how the fund has suffered since the economic downturn and their plan for recovery. Since then, that letter does not appear to have assuaged anxiety among some AMF-EPF members. A group of AMF member musicians met in New York City …