Following months of fruitless efforts to engage the Detroit Symphony Orchestra management in “good-faith” negotiations, musicians represented by American Federation of Musicians Local 5 went on strike Oct. 4. The Detroit Free Press reported Sept. 26: “The [pending] strike would be the first at the DSO since 1987 and comes after a bitter battle over salary and benefit cuts and work rules. The union has also filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.” The strike began on the day of the first rehearsal for the upcoming season’s concerts, forcing the cancellation of several performances with music director Leonard Slatkin.
 Musicians picket in Detroit |
According to the musicians’ union, “Because of the depressed economy and the DSO’s financial problems, the musicians had placed on the table a proposal agreeing to more than $9 million in cuts in salary and benefits, including cuts of 22% in next year’s annual scale, 14% in 2012, and 8% in 2013. That was on top of $3.4 million in concessions the musicians had made in the previous two contracts.” (afm.org)
The union’s offer was in response to demands by management for 33 percent cuts in salaries on top of drastic cuts in health insurance, and eliminating contributions to the pension plans. According to the union, the management proposal would also eliminate the previous three-year contracts’ guarantee of final-year partial restoration of some of the cuts, closing for good the DSO’s opportunity to regain its No. 10 ranking among U.S. symphony orchestras.
Management’s proposal also called for leaving open 14 orchestra positions that are currently unfilled, and to start new hires at a lower wage. New work rules were to expand the job to include chamber music, teaching and outreach work in addition to traditional duties of playing orchestral concerts. Players were currently being paid extra for such work, though some also volunteer their time.
After a failed 11th-hour negotiating session on Sept. 24 conducted with federal, state and local mediators present, management declared an impasse and began to implement the terms of its last contract offer. The imposed contract slices base pay for veterans some 30 percent from $104,650 to $70,200, rising to $73,200 in three years. The contract cuts salaries for incoming players by 42 percent to $61,200. The new work rules are also being implemented.
The imposed contract guarantees only 33 weeks of work plus three weeks of paid vacation, as well as the possibility of optional work for additional pay. Under the old contract, players enjoyed 52 weeks of work including nine weeks of paid vacation.
These hard blows forced the players into calling the strike.
DSO President and CEO Anne Parsons said she was disappointed by the players’ decision. Parson’s annual compensation, it should be noted, is $410,950. (charitynavigator.org)
“I’ve never seen a situation when the orchestra was so much in peril,” clarinetist Doug Cornelsen, a 40-year DSO veteran, told the Detroit Free Press. “The board is comprised of powerful people, and if they wanted to find some way to keep this orchestra where it’s been, they could find a way.”
The management hired by the board, however, claims that recession-driven drops in donations, ticket sales and investment income have created dire circumstances. The DSO also “tried to refinance the orchestra’s debt on the Max M. Fisher Music Center—a $2-million annual drain—but the banks balked on grounds the DSO’s business was unsustainable without significant cost-cutting.” (Detroit Free Press, Sept. 26) Clearly, the banks did not consider the union’s offer of $9 million in salary cuts and benefits sufficient.
And so, like the workers in Detroit’s once world-dominant auto industry, the highly skilled musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra are facing hard times. Detroit’s top-rated cultural and art institutions seem destined for second-rate status if the bankers and descendants of the original auto barons get their way. The fight of the DSO musicians and their union is our fight and deserves our full support.
