Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
We’ve enjoyed an unusually long stretch of time where there wasn’t a labor dispute brewing but that seems to becoming rapidly to an end and the culprit this time around is the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO). With a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that expires Sunday, 9/4/2016 the group has yet to reach a new deal. The PSO’s soon to expire agreement was a three-year term covering the 2013/14, 2014/15, and 2015/16 …
In the early evening of Tuesday, 6/14/2016, Lawrence A. Johnson broke the news via an article at ChicagoClassicalReview.com that the Grant Park Music Festival (GPMF) announced that they were cancelling their opening night concert on Wednesday, 6/15/2016 due to a musician’s strike. The Chicago Sun-Times and Tribune quickly confirmed but all of the reports were missing some key elements, such as why the musicians decided to strike. GPMF musicians did not …
The 5/20/2016 edition of mlive.com published an article by Al Jones that reports on an unfair labor charge filed against the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra (KSO) by the union representing its musicians. The official National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) case lists that allegation as 8(a)(5) Repudiation/Modification of Contract [Sec 8(d)/Unilateral Changes], which the NLRB defines as such: Section 8(a)(5)—Refusal to Bargain in Good Faith. Section 8(a)(5) makes it illegal for an employer …
Even though the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) managed to avoid a work stoppage thanks to an eleventh hour one-year agreement, that doesn’t mean it prevented things from continuing to turn ugly. The latest development involves the musicians staging a sit-in at FWSO offices on Thursday, March 24, 2016 to protest what they defined as the employer’s “unilateral cancellation of all scheduled negotiation sessions.” The musicians released the following statement in …
In what feels like a roller coaster that simply won’t end, the San Antonio Symphony (SAS) recently announced a new round of cuts via a reopener to its existing two-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which covers the 2015/16 and 2016/17 seasons. The only potential silver lining in the cuts is instead of making the reductions permanent by reducing base wages, benefits, or season length, stakeholders agreed to opt for a temporary …