In Wednesday’s (6/10) Post-Dispatch (St. Louis), Sarah Bryan Miller reports that “the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra has a new contract that contains modest gains and no givebacks from the musicians union. The SLSO’s management and Local 2-197 of the American Federation of Musicians announced late Tuesday afternoon that they had reached agreement on a new 3-year contract. The agreement, which came more than a year before the current contract is to expire, will go into effect on Aug. 30, 2010, and run through Sept. 1, 2013. The new contract restores some of the steep cuts in pay and work hours that musicians accepted in 2001, when a financial crisis nearly forced the orchestra to go under. The new contract increases the number of weeks of work to 43 from 42; in 2001, the contract called for 52 weeks. … Wages for orchestra members here will increase by 5.6 percent over the life of the contract, to $81,892 in 2013 from $77,530 in 2010. Pension contributions will increase to 7 percent from 5 percent; health insurance remains unchanged.” President and Executive Director Fred Bronstein called the agreement “positive all around, good for both parties, in a time when you’re not hearing a lot of positive things.”
Posted June 10, 2009
Photo credit: Rae Burger
