In Friday’s (7/30) and Saturday’s (7/31) Detroit News, Lawrence B. Johnson follows stalled contract efforts by Detroit Symphony musicians and management. In the Friday article, Johnson reports, “Musicians’ spokesman Haden McKay, a cellist, said management has not budged from its original demand for a 28 percent cut in the players’ annual base pay of $105,000…. McKay said management had rejected a counteroffer that would provide a 22 percent wage cut in the first year, to $82,000, with increases in the second and third year to bring the minimum up to $96,000. But DSO president and executive director Anne Parsons said negotiators for the musicians have repeatedly canceled talks over the past month.” On Saturday, Johnson reports that the Detroit Symphony’s musicians were “taking their case directly to the people” by distributing leaflets to audiences that weekend at the Meadow Brook Music Festival “asking why management persists in an offer that, in the union’s view, would compromise several aspects of the DSO’s legacy and future…. Parsons said Friday she was unaware of the musicians’ plan.… Parsons also acknowledged Friday that management had presented the musicians with two contract offers at the same time. The one under consideration, known as Proposal A, expires Aug. 28, the day before the musicians’ current three-year contract expires. The next negotiating session is set for Aug. 27. If the musicians have not approved some version of Proposal A by Aug. 28, the more stringent Proposal B becomes the offer of record.”
August 2, 2010
