The San Francisco Symphony. Photo by Brandon Patoc.
“Last week, musicians of the San Francisco Symphony started distributing flyers about working without a contract, also calling attention to the problem on their website and on Facebook,” writes Janos Gereben in Tuesday’s (1/31) San Francisco Classical Voice. Gereben reports that the musicians stated: “ ‘We … have been playing without a contract for months and are the only major American orchestra who have not had their salaries restored to the contractually agreed rates, prior to the contract expiring. We made major financial accommodations during the pandemic with the understanding that once the Symphony was back playing for our audiences we would return to our contract rates. The management … are now demanding that the new contract have cuts to the rates we had agreed to during the COVID emergency, not even our contractual rates.’ SF Classical Voice asked SF Symphony management for a response and received an email that included this statement: ‘The current collective bargaining agreement for the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony expired on Nov. 26, 2022. Negotiating sessions with the union representing the musicians have been ongoing since Sept. 15, 2022. Both parties have agreed to continue negotiations while concerts continue beyond the contract expiration date…. We hope to have an agreement in place soon.’ ”
