In Saturday’s (12/1) Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, Florida), Charlie Patton writes, “There is enough evidence of unfair labor practices by the Jacksonville Symphony Association to take the musicians’ union’s complaint before an administrative law judge, the National Labor Relations Board has decided. … In a news release issued Friday morning, the symphony association said, ‘It is important to understand that this complaint merely makes allegations based on charges filed by the union.’ But the NLRB, which sent an investigator to Jacksonville to interview representatives of the symphony association and the union, could have declined to take the complaint to an administrative law judge. … The 2011-12 Jacksonville Symphony season marked the end of a five-year musicians’ contract that began in January 2008 following a lockout of more than two months. Negotiators for the symphony association and the musicians met regularly last spring and summer but remained far apart. The symphony association declared an impasse in the negotiations on Sept. 18 and imposed the conditions of its last offer to the musicians, which had been its first offer. That reduced the base annual salary of the musicians by almost 20 percent, from $40,155 to $32,208. Two days later, the union filed an unfair labor practices charge against the symphony association. The union subsequently announced that the musicians would begin the season rather than going on strike.”
Posted December 3, 2012
