Performances in the United States stalled when the coronavirus outbreak, many of the country’s leading orchestras, dance companies and opera para houses temporarily cut their workers’ salaries, and some stopped paying them altogether.
Now, with hopes that vaccines will resume next fall, fears are rife that it could take years for offices to become inactive, and many scattered organizations are negotiating long-term cuts to their unions, which they say Is required. To survive.
A major challenge for the arts union posing the crisis has been the recent bho, which has been the strongest in the country in recent decades. While the composers of some of the larger pieces, including the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Or Orchestra, agreed on a steep cut that could be obscure in ordinary times, others are resisting. Some unions fear that the waiver that has been sought could eliminate the epidemic, and reset the balance of power between management and labor.
“Historically, labor contracts in the performing arts are moving towards more money and better conditions,” said Thomas. Said Morris, who has led major orchestras in the United States for more than three decades. “And suddenly it’s not an option. It is a fundamental change of pattern. “
There is nowhere more tension between labor and management than the Metropolitan Opera, the country’s largest performing arts institution. Its performers and other workers, many of whom have been on unpaid duty since April, are being resisted by management for long-term pay cuts and changes to work rules to start getting reduced wages up to $ 1,500 a week again. After failing to reach an agreement with its stakeholders, the company locked them out last week before deciding to return to further work to begin building sets next season.
But with a growing number of orchestra musicians agreeing to long-term cuts, it could take years for audiences and philanthropists to bounce back after this extended period of recognizable dark concert halls and theaters.
New York Philharmonic announced a new deal last week that would reduce musicians’ base pay by 25 percent in mid-2023 to 3 153,504 to 5 115,128 a year. Some salaries will then be reinstated, but players will still earn less than before the outbreak when the contract expires in 2024. The Boston Symphony Orchestra, one of the nation’s richest men, agreed to a new three-year contract with an average 37 percent pay cut in the first year, a gradual increase in the following years, but the orchestra recovers completely if it meets at least three financial benchmarks. The San Francisco Opera agreed to a new deal that would halve the orchestra’s salary this season, but later it made some support.
Unions have a major role behind the scenes in many arts organizations. The agreement they negotiate not only determines the salary, but also helps establish different working conditions, including how many permanent members of the orchestra should be, how many stagehonds need to be backstage for each performance, whether additional pay is needed for Sunday’s performance. Is. It’s not uncommon for the main orchestra to suddenly see the final line of a rehearsal – even when a famous master is running – when a digital rehearsal clock shows that they are going to go overtime.
Workers and artists say many of these regulations have improved health and safety and increased the quality of performance; Management has often chefed at cost.
Many nonprofit performing arts organizations, including Matt, face real financial challenges even before the epidemic strikes. Now, he says, they are fighting for their survival, scattering or dispersing administrative staff and seeking relief from unions.
“The unions are very upset about the exemption; That goes against what trade union strategy has told them for 100-plus years, “said Sutson. Schuermann, professor of labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers University. “But clearly they understand that this is an unprecedented situation.”
But the institutions Matt and John F. in Washington. In some organizations, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, workers are accusing management of trying to take advantage of the crisis to change long-sought union contracts.
Peter Galeb, Matt’s general manager, wants to cut workers’ salaries by 30 percent and restore only half of the cuts when office fees are recovered. He hopes to achieve most of the cuts by changing the rules of work. “The health crisis has exacerbated Matt’s previous financial fragility, which threatens our very existence,” he wrote in a letter to the union representing the local one of Matt’s nearly 300 stagehonds, an international alliance of theatrical stage staff, last month. He also wrote that for an average full-time standhand last year, the Met cost $ 260,000, with benefits.
“For Matt to get back on his feet, we all have to make financial concessions and sacrifices,” Mr Galbe told staff in a video call last month.
There are 15 unions on the Mets, and most bigwigs have said they are willing to agree to some cuts, pushing back on changes that will further the epidemic and redefine the rules for the work they have long fought for. Were. – Many workers, especially orchestras, choirs, and backstage workers, including the Legion, endured many months without pay. Matthew orchestra, represented by the local 80808 of the American Federation of Music and Musicians, said in a statement that management was “using this temporary position to permanently contract the very workers who are performing on their global stage.”
Leonard Egert, national executive director of The American Guild Mus f Musical Artists, which represents members of the choir, reciters, dancers, stage managers and others at the Met, said the unions recognized the difficult reality and were willing to compromise. “It’s just that no one wants to sell the future,” he said.
Stagehounds are fighting a similar battle at the Kennedy Center in Washington. David McIntyre, the local president of the coalition’s 22nd local body, said he had been in controversial negotiations with the Kennedy Center for months over his demand for a 25 percent pay cut, making it difficult for union members to fill their stomachs, many of whom have left. March without pay.
Management also called for a waiver on Sunday to abolish the time-let-go salary, he said, adding that the epidemic would be permanent rather than limited. Union Stagehands is particularly angry because the Kennedy Center received 25 25 million from a federal stimulus bill passed in March.
“When no one is working, they are just trying to get rid of us by creating an epidemic,” said Mr. M. Conte.
Aileen Andrews, a spokeswoman for the Kennedy Center, said many unions, including musicians with the National Symphony Orchestra, work with already approved pay cuts, and recovery from the epidemic needs to be completed through “shared sacrifices.” ”
Organizations have lost millions of dollars in ticket revenue, and the outlook for philanthropy that they rely on for their survival is uncertain. As union negotiations move within a grid of video calls rather than specific stuffy board room tables, both parties recognize the economic fragility.
In some respects epidemics have changed the landscape of negotiations. Unions, which usually have a tremendous advantage because the strike closes the demonstration, are less at the moment when there is no demonstration stopping. The benefits of management have also changed. While Matt threatens to shut down its phases until most employees are prepared to bear fewer risks at the moment when they are not working in any way, It can be hard to resist.
In some organizations, memories of the devastation of recent labor disputes have helped boost cooperation during this crisis. In the Minnesota orchestra, where the bitter lockout kept the concert hall in the dark for 16 months in 2012, management and musicians agreed in August to a 25 percent pay cut.
And the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which won its hard-fought labor dispute last year, managed to reach a five-year contract this summer, gradually raising it again before rapidly increasing players’ salaries.
The last time a national crisis of this magnitude affected every performing arts organization in the country, when there was a major recession, when organizations called for a reduction in philanthropy and ticket sales, strikes, lockouts and cuts to provoke bitter controversies.
Meredith Snow, president of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians, which represents the players, said labor and management seem to work together more pleasantly than they often do – at least for now.
“There’s more recognition that we need to be a unified face for the community, and we can’t quarrel or we’re both going to go,” said Mrs. Snow, a violinist from Los Angeles Philharmonic. Below
He said, “Come together, or you will drown.”
