“Talks between New York’s Metropolitan Opera and its musicians and other unionized employees will resume this week after the opera company agreed to extend its deadline for a threatened lockout by another week, federal mediators said on Monday,” reports Jonathan Allen on Monday (8/11) at Reuters. “The contract negotiations … had been suspended for a week while an independent analyst studied the Met’s finances. Its previous labor contracts expired July 31. The analyst’s review is ‘nearing its completion,’ the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service said in a statement on Monday, adding that the Met had agreed to extend its deadline to Sunday, Aug. 17.… The Met said in a statement it was ‘looking forward’ to resuming talks. It reached new agreements with three of its smaller unions this month. Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, which represents the orchestra, and the American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents the chorus, said in a joint statement they planned to ‘continue to bargain in good faith.’ ”
Posted August 12, 2014
