Negotiations

Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra Goes On Strike

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Adaptistration People 179

At 10:30am CT, the musicians of the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra (CLOO), represented by the Chicago Federation of Musicians (CFM), released a press statement announcing they are on strike against their employer, Lyric Opera of Chicago (LOC). Why They Went On Strike According to the musicians’ statement, the decision to strike was due to the following LOC demands: 1) “Cutting the number of Orchestra musicians by eliminating five positions.” According to …

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Causation Or Correlation?

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Minnesota Orchestra violist and all-around thoughtful professional, Sam Bergman, posted an intriguing thread on Twitter where he wondered aloud about the relationship between orchestras announcing positive/negative financial news and collective bargaining agreement cycles. And just in case you miss it in the tweets, Sam makes it clear he is not referring to his own orchestra. Someone should really do a serious study someday of the surpluses/deficits symphony orchestras announce to the …

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Atlanta’s Latest Step In The Slow Burn Process Of Recapturing Lost Ground

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Adaptistration People 034

The 3/5/2018 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an article by Bo Emerson that reports the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and its musicians recently ratified a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) through the 2020/21 season. While a copy of the CBA has yet to be released, the AJC article reports the organization will return to “full strength” by the end of the term. The real question there is which benchmark is …

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#TBT Gaining Some Perspective On Pensions

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Adaptistration People 173

In light of recent news coming out of San Antonio Wednesday evening, I wanted to post a second #TBT article today pointing out a pair of articles from 2004 that explain how pensions work and ways they impact collective bargaining negotiations. These will be instrumental in helping you shape a necessary frame of reference when processing all of the pension related details coming to light via the San Antonio Symphony’s (SAS) …

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According To SAS Musicians, Deficits Reflect More On Governance, Not Capacity

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Reflection or Projection

The Musicians of the San Antonio Symphony (MOSAS) published a newsletter on 12/23/17 that includes an article by Peter Flamm, San Antonio Symphony (SAS) Principal Timpani. According to Flamm’s article, the organization’s deficits aren’t the result of inadequate staff efforts or musician expenses. Instead, he suggests deficits over the past few decades should raise questions about governance. If advertising and promotion is unattractive or sporadic, ticket sales will be low and …

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