“Good news for Florida Orchestra musicians—a 12-percent raise. A new collective bargaining agreement increases musicians’ base pay from $35,282 to $40,040 over three years, the orchestra said Wednesday,” writes Andrew Meacham in Wednesday’s (5/30) Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, FL). The agreement, which takes effect September 1, three months before the current contract expires, “also opens the door to summer concerts starting in 2019. ‘Maintaining our musicians and attracting new ones has to remain paramount for the organization,’ orchestra president and CEO Michael Pastreich said…. The orchestra attributes its rosier financial outlook to robust fundraising … and a 45 percent increase in paid attendance since 2009. The new contract tweaks the schedule from 31 work weeks to 33 and restores two weeks of paid vacation…. Over the next three years, its number of full-time musicians will increase by two.… ‘We worked together to find solutions that put us on a pathway to being a bigger and better organization,’ … said Andrew Karr, a French horn player who heads a committee representing the musicians…. In recent years the orchestra has greatly increased the number and frequency of its community outreach concerts.”
Posted May 31, 2018
Pictured: Music Director Michael Francis conducts the Florida Orchestra
