“The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and its musicians announced Saturday that they have reached a tentative agreement on a one-year contract that could return the performers to the stage at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall as early as next week,” writes Mary Carole McCauley in Saturday’s (9/21) Baltimore Sun. “No details of the proposed contract will be released before the ratification vote, which is scheduled for Monday. A brief, joint statement by the BSO and the Musicians’ Association of Metropolitan Baltimore Local 40-543 said that if both the players’ union and the BSO’s board of directors vote to sign the contract ‘it would enable the Baltimore Symphony to open its concert season’ next weekend. A marathon bargaining session aimed at ending the 13-week work stoppage wrapped up at about 10 p.m. Friday…. The labor dispute was exacerbated by the BSO’s dire financial straits, reflected in an audit released this summer…. The biggest stumbling block in contract talks had been management’s demand that the season be shortened from 52 weeks to 40…. Contract talks broke down Sept. 9 [and] official negotiations ceased for 10 days, but informal talks continued … Once both sides returned to the bargaining table on Thursday, they began to make more rapid progress.”
Posted September 23, 2019
