Just in: Cleveland Orchestra awards pay rises
mainThe Cleveland Orchestra has struck a new three-year deal with its musicians.
The players will receive 2% annual increases during the term, and there will be a new fifth tier of seniority pay at the 25-year mark to acknowledge the deep commitment and dedication of the musicians.In turn, the musicians’ contribution towards healthcare premiums will increase in each year of the agreement.
“Musicians and Management approached these negotiations with the shared objective of having collaborative, constructive, and collegial contract discussions,” said André Gremillet, Cleveland Orchestra President & CEO. “The musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra are pleased to have reached an agreement with the Musical Arts Association on a new Trade Agreement,” said Jonathan Sherwin, Chairman of the Orchestra Committee.
It sounds like there were grownups on both sides of the table.
2% annual is not much of a raise
It just barely keeps up with the inflation rate. On the other hand Cleveland is not a rich city. I looked it up and saw this: “The unemployment rate in metro Cleveland is 5.4 percent, which is well above both the national average (4.1 percent) and the rest of Ohio (4.7 percent).”
https://patch.com/ohio/cleveland/unemployment-down-hiring-clevelands-economy-improving
Do you know something about their financials that leads you to believe it should have been more?
The musicians’ portion of insurance premium is going up every year, too, so in terms of take-home pay it’s [even] less of a raise than it looks like.
This is how the situation in Boston could well have arisen. John Ferrillo had vastly more bargaining power than Elizabeth Rowe when he joined. By committing to the BSO and severing his ties with the Met, he relinquished that power and he has benefitted from the collective negotiations since he joined. Initial differentials are therefore perpetuated. Unfair, very likely, but it has nothing to do with gender.
How much do they save with concertmaster, principal horn, and principal trombone open? If there are around 100 players with an average salary of 200k, thats $400k per year for the 2% raises. Those three open positions must total around a million bucks and are more than capable of absorbing the raise.