“With Atlanta Symphony Orchestra management determined to halt a decade of deficit operations in 2012, its locked-out musicians … agreed to a contract in which their pay was cut by an average of 14 percent and their full-time ranks were trimmed from 95 to 88,” writes Howard Pousner in Sunday’s (9/14) Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The second ASO musician lockout in two years is again about money—salary, benefits, number of weeks of employment for the musicians; balanced books for management. But an equally big issue, looming larger this time, is the orchestra’s size. Seeking a sustainable operating model, management wants to control the number of musicians.… The players protest that making the orchestra any smaller will destroy its sound, and say they don’t trust ASO leadership with power over such a sensitive matter. Among the several major areas of disagreement between the two sides, who made little progress in forging a deal in eight months of bargaining prior to the lockout, this could be a key one in potentially delaying the opening of the 70th anniversary season on Sept. 25.” The article states that there are currently “no plans to return to the negotiating table.”
Posted September 16, 2014
