Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
It looks like we’re one step closer to wrapping up the list of outstanding mid to large budget orchestras with expired agreements that have managed to ratify a new contract without resorting to a work stoppage. The Grand Rapids Symphony (GRS) reportedly reached a tentative five-year agreement after more than seven months of play and talk. The new agreement must be ratified by the GRS board and the musicians before terms …
A discussion thread from the 2/22/16 article about musician paid vacation time got me thinking about how much those inside (and out) of the field really know about the business. Although information and transparency is somewhat better now than it was 15 years ago, most stakeholders still tend to know a lot about the terms of their own institution’s collective bargaining agreement, but not very much about how it stacks up …
A few weeks ago during one of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra negotiation articles, I indicated that we would take some time to examine a topic we’ve never studied before: vacation time. Although vacation time seems like a fairly straightforward item to those outside the field, there’s actually quite a bit more going on under the surface. Necessary Perspective Like many issues within the field, this one doesn’t unfold the same …
Now that the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) managed to avoid an ugly work stoppage and temporarily release some labor pressure by agreeing to a one-year extension, both sides have the opportunity to emerge from the specter of brinkmanship. Having said that, let’s examine some glass-half-full/glass-half-empty scenarios that may unfold over the next six months of negotiations. Glass-Half-Full Ultimately, negotiations are all about revenue and expenses but even though the latter …
UPDATE: It looks like cooler heads are prevailing for the time being as the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) has decided against imposing a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) after musicians rejected what they called their last best, final offer. As of now, there are no firm plans on whether or not both sides plan to return to bargaining so for the time being, it is a hurry up and wait scenario. Given the …