“The Metropolitan Opera, which had threatened to lock out its workers if it did not reach new deals with its labor unions by Sunday night, said Saturday evening that it would extend its current contracts for about a week while an independent analyst examined its finances,” writes Michael Cooper in Sunday’s (8/3) New York Times. “Since Friday, the Met and two of its biggest unions, representing the orchestra and chorus, have been in talks with a federal mediator. Those talks yielded the idea of calling in an independent analyst to conduct a confidential, nonbinding study of the company’s finances. The parties chose Eugene Keilin, a founder of KPS Capital Partners who has long played a role in New York City’s finances.… The independent analyst could help the unions and management come to an agreement on the scope of the company’s financial troubles. The move represented the second reprieve from a potential lockout in a few days; on Thursday night the Met granted a 72-hour extension to give mediation time to work…. The Met … has reached agreements with three of its smaller unions and still needs to make deals with 12 others.”
Posted August 4, 2014
