Peter Gelb’s other headache

Talks open today with the stage unions. In a press statement overnight, they delivered the nub of their position:

Despite the increased workload, labor costs for IA members have only risen by 2.91 percent since 2007. Meanwhile the Met’s budget has grown
from $190 million to $311 million, a 60 percent increase.

“The Met’s management, even before contract talks have begun, has tried to place the Met’s financial problems on the shoulders of the opera company’s workers and performers,“ said Joe Hartnett, IA’s Assistant Director of Stagecraft. “This is misguided. We don’t have a labor-cost problem at the Met — we have a management-spending problem. We can save the Met — we all want to see the show go on — but it means all of us working together to bring the budget in line.”