“After months of sometimes painstaking negotiations punctuated by a few impasses, Pacific Symphony musicians finally have a new contract,” writes Paul Hodgins in Thursday’s (3/9) Orange County Register (CA).“An agreement with the orchestra’s board of directors was reached in late October, but it took until mid-February to draft the exacting and complex language of the document… The newly ratified contract … includes wage increases of 10.4 percent over five years…. Robert Sanders, president of the Local 7 of the American Federation of Musicians … said service guarantees were a crucial part of the new contract. ‘We went from no guarantees to a three-tier system that guarantees the number of rehearsals and performances (Pacific Symphony musicians) will get in a season.’ … The symphony operates on a per-service rather than salary contract…. [With] freelance opportunities in Hollywood and elsewhere … not as frequent or lucrative as they once were … Pacific Symphony president John Forsyte [said], ‘We had to develop a new working model that would be distinctive to this orchestra.’ … Forsyte emphasized that the new contract brings other additional costs…. But Forsyte is optimistic about his orchestra’s plans for growth, which will be articulated after a meeting later this month to finalize the details of a new strategic plan.”
Posted March 10, 2017
Pictured: Music Director Carl St.Clair and the Pacific Symphony
