“Management and musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra have settled a new contract more than a year before the current one expires,” write Sally Kalson and Andrew Druckenbrod in Monday’s (6/10) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “The agreement calls for a 4 percent wage increase for the 2013-14 season, a wage freeze in 2014-15 and a 3 percent increase in 2015-16. The annual base salary for 2013-14 will be roughly $104,000, with many principal players making more. The orchestra’s size will remain at 99 musicians and two librarians. Also included are changed work rules that provide ‘greater flexibility to the PSO,’ according to a news release, and increased retirement benefits. Under the current pact, the musicians … had accepted a 9.7 percent wage reduction for the first two years of a three-year agreement, with a wage reopener in the third year, which is this one.… ‘Negotiations were extremely positive,’ said James A. Wilkinson, Pittsburgh Symphony president and CEO. ‘I think both sides are very pleased we’ve managed to avoid a full-blown negotiation next year.’… Bass player Micah Howard, the musicians’ union representative, said the salary increase ‘won’t get us back to where we were, but it gets us close. In the climate we’re in now, this is a great contract.’ ”
Posted June 13, 2013
Photo of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra by Jeff Swensen
