In Friday’s (9/27) Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Graydon Royce reports, “The Minnesota Orchestra sweetened its offer to locked-out musicians Thursday, after an 11th-hour fundraising effort led by Marilyn Carlson Nelson, one of Minnesota’s wealthiest people. The latest proposal in the bitter yearlong dispute includes a $20,000 one-time bonus to each musician, to help offset a pay cut that would reduce base salaries over three years, ending at 25 percent below current levels. Money for the bonuses would come from the Carlson Family Foundation, 14 other Minnesota foundations and the community group SOS: Save Osmo. ‘We consider this a unique offering, born of shared respect for the Orchestra and in recognition of so many Minnesotans committed to finding a solution,’ Nelson said in a statement. … Blois Olson, a spokesman for the musicians, complained that the board had gone public with this new proposal. ‘We are further offended that they have again broken the confidentiality of the mediator’s process,’ Olson said, referring to former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell’s offer to mediate the negotiations. … The board’s release said the three-year proposal would result in a deficit of $3.6 million over three years.”
Posted September 27, 2013
