While we were out, Philadelphia went back to work
mainIt may be the shortest strike in recent history.
On Friday, musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra walked out on strike.
On Monday, they walked right back after a 73-11 vote to accept a new offer.
Here’s what both sides are saying. It does look like the management side blinked first.
Management:
- Continued support for the artistic excellence of the Orchestra and the future financial stability of the organization
- The expansion of the complement to 97 musicians in year three
- Flexibility to stage additional pop-up concerts more frequently
- The expansion of the highly popular Sunday concerts to embrace audience demand
- Creative engagement in collaborative learning activities
- Musician participation on the Development Committee of The Board of Directors and direct involvement in fundraising
Musicians:
We, the Musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra, with the deepest respect for our music, our audience, the City of Philadelphia, and the world’s musical community, have today ratified a new contract. This agreement covers the next 3 years, and gives us modest increases of 2%, 2 1/2% and 2 1/2%. These increases do not achieve our goal of being compensated on a level comparable with other leading American Orchestras.
The Philadelphia Orchestra Association has indicated to us that it will be engaging in new methods to enhance the position of the Orchestra in the community and to reach new donors. The musicians have committed to working with the Association in these endeavors.
The musicians believe that the vast majority of the recommendations made by Michael Kaiser should be adopted by the Association. We will be closely watching to see if this occurs.
When we reluctantly went on strike a few days ago, we had no expectation that we could quickly restore this Orchestra to the compensation and working conditions for which we are striving. But we felt that, after years of decline which threatened to become irreversible, this was the only way in which we could call attention to a situation we regarded as desperate.
Three years from now, we look forward to ratifying a contract which will truly restore the Philadelphia Orchestra to its rightful place among the great orchestras of the world.
We hope to see you at any of our October 4th Audience Appreciation Day concerts. Further information can be found on our website:www.POMusicians.org.
A few years ago, the Chicago Symphony had a strike that lasted one day as I recall.
Glad to hear that the strike is over but to schedule free “Audience Appreciation Concerts” right after they struck just minutes before a gala fundraising concert was to be be held — the audience was literally sitting in the hall when it got the bad news — is a bit strange. After all, the proceeds from the gala were going to be used, theoretically at least, to help pay the musician’s salaries. Why not offer to play a free concert for the folks who had paid the big bucks to be at the gala?
Excellent point!
The appreciation “concerts” were planned as of September 22, and announced officially on September 26, before the strike vote was made on September 29.
See https://www.facebook.com/pomusicians/
(correction)
…before the strike vote was made on September 30.
It remains to be seen as to whether ANY of Kaiser’s suggestions will be implemented. Meanwhile, the Orchestra remains eighth in basic wages in the US with only two rostered positions of the ten taken away after the bankruptcy to be filled – the second only in the third year of the agreement.