Sunday (3/17) on the New York Times blog ArtsBeat, James Oestreich reports, “The San Francisco Symphony has announced that negotiations over a new contract with the musicians have broken down with the players’ rejection of a federal mediator’s proposal for a cooling-off period. As a result, the orchestra’s East Coast tour, which was to have included concerts at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday and Thursday as well as concerts in Newark and Washington on Friday and Saturday, has been canceled. The musicians went on strike on Wednesday, mainly over wage issues, the current average salary being $165,000, and rehearsals and concerts were canceled at its home, Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, day by day through the weekend. What were called marathon bargaining sessions, meanwhile, proved fruitless.” According to Janos Gereben, writing in Friday’s (3/15) San Francisco Classical Voice, management’s initial proposal included “a wage freeze in the first year, and 1% increase of base salary in each of the following two years. … The musicians originally asked for a 5% increase per year, dropping the demand down to 4% per year.” The other main sticking point was health care. “The musicians claim that [proposed] changes would cost them $2 million under changed rules. There are no specifics from either side.”
Photo of the San Francisco Symphony by Bill Blankenship
Posted March 18, 2013
