“The Philadelphia Orchestra strike is over,” writes Peter Dobrin in Sunday’s (10/2) Philadelphia Inquirer. “After meeting late Saturday night into Sunday, negotiators presented a contract to musicians Sunday afternoon at the Kimmel Center, and the new deal was ratified by a vote of 73 to 11, union members said. The contract is contingent upon approval by the orchestra board and the musicians’ union executive board this week…. Musicians walked out Friday night as an audience for the orchestra’s opening-night gala sat awaiting the players’ arrival on stage.… During the orchestra’s bankruptcy five years ago … raises were suspended and the size of the ensemble was cut. Management’s first contract offer a month ago was for a five-year deal with no raises in the first two years, and 1 percent raises in each of the following three…. The new deal, reached with the help of a federal mediator, calls for wage increases of 2 percent in year one, and 2.5 percent increases each in years two and three, which brings base pay to $137,800 in the third year of the contract…. The contract in its last year also calls for increasing the size of the orchestra … from the current 96 and two librarians to 97 and two librarians.”
Posted October 3, 2016
Pictured: The Philadelphia Orchestra and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin
