In Wednesday’s (11/17) Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas), Marty Sabota writes, “Musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, who have been performing without a contract since August, voted Tuesday night to approve a two-year contract that reduces their base pay for the current season by 13.5 percent. The agreement also calls for the orchestra’s 2010 schedule to be shortened, from 52 weeks to 45 weeks, said Ray Hair, president of Local 72-147 of the American Federation of Musicians. … Management had sought to reduce the schedule to 42 weeks for two seasons, which would have meant a pay cut of more than 17 percent. But in the approved contract’s second year, which begins May 2011, a week was added to the 45-week schedule, along with more pay, Hair said. Orchestra officials could not be reached to comment late Tuesday. However, Ann Koonsman, president of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Association since 1980, noted the reduction in grants from the Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, canceled performances in Waxahachie and Killeen, canceled contracts with Texas Ballet Theater and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a $120,000 decline in ticket sales. ‘We don’t buy into any of the company’s rhetoric that these cuts were justified economically,’ Hair said.”
Posted November 17, 2010
