In Thursday’s (9/19) Lexington Herald-Leader (Ky.), Rich Copley reports, “The Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra’ management and musicians effectively called a time-out on their contract negotiations Thursday afternoon and are going on with Friday night’s concert. Musician committee chair Dave Shelton said that while musicians remain concerned about a number of issues in the negotiations, ‘a slim majority voted to give the discussions a chance. We are confident future discussions will yield a fair agreement that protects the job security of musicians and increases the degree to which we can provide full-orchestra concerts to the audience that we love.’ Philharmonic board president R. Scott King said, ‘It gives both parties an opportunity to put something in place for now. What might be overlooked is it gives us the opportunity to really take a breather, step away from the table; there’s a lot of wounds that occur, particularly in a process as long as ours.’ ” The temporary memorandum of understanding agreed to Thursday by musicians and management “will revert to the 2008 contract on many issues on which the parties could not agree. That memorandum will be in effect through June 30, 2014 … Talks on a new long-term agreement will resume after Jan. 1, 2014.”
Posted September 20, 2013
