“It started two years ago, when Strathmore began negotiating a union contract for a handful of full-time and part-time box office workers. Then came the pandemic,” writes Peggy McGlone in Friday’s (11/5) Washington Post. “Now, with the venue reopened, … the unresolved labor contract … has caused a rift between Strathmore and its founding partner, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Unable to agree on how to proceed … if there were a strike, the BSO has moved or canceled the first 11 concerts it had planned for Strathmore…. The escalation of events … has alarmed civic, arts and union leaders…. The BSO has performed at Strathmore since it opened in 2005. For its 2021-22 subscription season, the orchestra had planned 58 concerts at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore and 31 at Strathmore…. In two years of negotiating, IATSE Local 868 has filed two complaints with the NLRB…. Strathmore has settled both complaints, and the two sides have been in mediation.… Since August, Strathmore has hosted eight performances in its main concert hall … but the BSO has not returned…. If Strathmore and the union reach an agreement, the BSO could return for a concert … on Jan. 6.”
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