The labor situation at the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (WCO) continues to grind forward. At the conclusion of an article from 3/12/2009, we were awaiting a response from Daniel A. Kaplan, the attorney representing the WCO for these negotiations, on details behind why the WCO has engaged in what has been called by some in the business as regressive bargaining practices. Although Mr. Kaplan acknowledged receipt of the request for information he has unfortunately not provided those details…
Negotiations
An Interesting Take On The WCO
Robert Levine posted an intriguing piece over at Abu Bratsche on 3/6/2009 regarding ongoing developments with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (WCO) negotiations. Never the dull writer, Robert launches the post with this gem, “Labor disputes never bring out the best in employers, and orchestras are no exception.”…
Checking In On Charleston
The 2/18/2009 edition of the Charleston City Paper published an article by Greg Hambrick that does a good job outlining the current situation at the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. According to the article, the organization projects a major cash flow deficiency sometime in March and is pressing musicians to reduce the number of salaried members. We’ll be looking at this situation closer at the end of next week, in the meantime, Greg’s …
Madison’s Red Herring Special
When considering historical reasons behind work stoppages in the orchestra business, what comes to mind are intense disagreements on financial compensation and/or work rules, impending financial impasse, entrenched positions among stakeholders, attempts to implement sizeable budget cuts, etc. After the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (WCO) announced they were cancelling their 2/27/2009 Masterworks concert due to what the organization defined as the musicians rejecting their latest contract offer, it seemed the two sides must have these sorts of disagreements. However, the reality may be very different…
Something Doesn’t Smell Right In Madison
After making steady progress on months of contentious negotiations, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (WCO) issued a press release on January 30, 2009 announcing they were cancelling an upcoming February concert nearly a month away. According to the PR, the reason for the cancellation is because the Musicians of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra negotiation committee rejected provisions in the WCO’s latest negotiation offer. However, additional details in the WCO’s PR come across as smelling a bit off…