Latest: Atlanta Symphony in desperate ploy

Latest: Atlanta Symphony in desperate ploy

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norman lebrecht

September 23, 2014

The orchestra has published what purports to be its negotiating position, beside that of the musicians.

However, the table below represents the musicians’ starting position, not the compromises they had offered at the point they were shut out. It is, therefore, a wilful distortion – indicative of a company that has lost the capacity for reasoned thought and discussion.

Comments

  • Amy says:

    It’s fascinating to see what happens when you click on the link: at the time you shared this, Norman, apparently there were 37 comments.
    Where do they go when you try to read them?
    Censorship doesn’t look good on you, ASO management.
    First you slap up a graphic that might as well be physically tilted, it’s so dramatically slanted to show the musicians in a bad light.
    Then….you remove the opportunity for the public to comment.

    Let’s hear from Virginia Hepner, the puppetmaster behind this lockout. She has questions to answer.

  • Nick says:

    I am not sure about the USA, but in some other countries deliberate misrepresentation can be actionable in court.

  • Kevin Case says:

    ASO management is also misrepresenting its position on health care. Its actual proposal contains this: “ASO retains the right to unilaterally change any aspect of the plan so long as the changes apply to all ASO employees.”
    Might as well not have a health-care benefit in the contact at all — this provision would make the benefit essentially meaningless.

  • Dave Assemany says:

    As a symphony goer and donor my biggest issue with this is the compliment issue. I want any orchestra I attend and support to have a full compliment, not one that is subject to the whims of a CEO.

  • John V. says:

    If that is the ASO’s opening point in the negotiations, and they have not made any concessions where the players have, then the ASO is not negotiating in good faith. The company has basically taken a “take it or leave it” position and is using the lockout to punish the players.

  • Monty Cole says:

    This _is_ a desperate ploy. Hang in there orchestra. And, if any board members are reading this, how does it make you feel to follow Captain Hepner as she sails the WAC straight into ice berg after ice berg? Please use your position to rein in the incompetent management. The people of Atlanta deserve better. Monty in Macon.

  • Vaquero357 says:

    While I’m sure the musicians enjoy receiving compliments as much as any of the rest of us, the compliment issue is really, at best, complementary to the question of the size of the complement.

    Seriously, to those of us in the upper Midwest (USA), it’s very distressing to see the ordeal the musicians and audiences of the Minnesota Orchestra went through being replicated in Atlanta.

    I get it – sort of: if you’re a “Captain of Industry,” part of the uniform is sitting on boards of charitable and non-profit organizations. And the glamorous stuff like the Children’s Hospital is already taken by people from Old Money. But if you really, really, REALLY hate classical music, just leave the Symphony alone and stop trying to kill it!

  • Maria says:

    There’s a puppet master behind VH, I feel. Look carefully at the WAC board.

  • […] the first to notice was Norman Lebrecht, who published a post on 9/23/2014 that asserts the ASO’s infographic “represents the musicians’ […]

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