Nat'l Sym musicians say KennedyCenter actions break contract

[alexwill]

https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/04/01/nso-musicians-call-kennedy-centers-decision-to-suspend-their-pay-baseless/

[alexwill]

For Immediate Release
April 7, 2020
Washington, D.C.

The Musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra are pleased that a settlement has been reached to resolve the grievance filed by our union challenging the Kennedy Center’s decision to furlough musicians beginning this week. That action was not permitted under our collective bargaining agreement and, under the settlement, musicians will not be furloughed. In recognition of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Kennedy Center, however, we have agreed to modify our collective bargaining agreement to make substantial economic concessions. Our agreement also will be extended for an additional year, through the beginning of September 2024. This will provide financial stability to our musicians during this difficult time.

We are grateful to have a collective bargaining agreement and a union—the D.C. Federation of Musicians, AFM Local 161-710—to protect us. Not all Kennedy Center staff are so fortunate. We urge the Kennedy Center to bring back the Orchestra’s staff as a matter of fairness and so that our venture can flourish. We need their talents to help start new musical projects to present to our patrons and the larger world. The musicians of the National Symphony are pledging at least $50,000 of our own money over the next 10 weeks to help support our NSO staff colleagues. While it is not enough to make them whole, we hope that it helps materially as well as demonstrating our respect and admiration for them.

Throughout this process, the NSO musicians, as always, have bee

[OldSchoolEuph]

This is a sad example of musicians blessed with a strong union and great good fortune in benefits acting in a manner astoundingly blind to the sensitivities of the society that provides that blessing.

Yes, just cutting off pay and dropping people off their healthcare at this time, especially when eligible for government intervention specifically intended to avoid that, would have been an outrage. But this story has been portrayed, by the union (I wish I could find a way to emphasize those three words to indicate my alarm) as a simple matter of "we have a contract - you have to pay us for not working".

To the vast majority of Americans who either are losing their income, or know others that they will now try to aid who have done so, this appears petty, childish and above all spoiled ("yeah, we'll give a little, but we get another year guaranteed no matter what!").

It is SO hard for artists to convey the value of their work, their years of dedication and sacrifice, and their consummate risk of not being one of the best few who make it; and then the union goes and mishandles the communication of a situation like this to once again instill resentment of what ordinary Americans, who lets face it, are not exactly appreciative of anything that does not involve beer and bodily contact, see as a life of elitist privilege and snobbery.

That serious music has this negative perception can only partially be blamed on a culture that rewards ignorant physical prowess over education and art - the rest of that blame lies squarely on the shoulders of those who make no effort to communicate with the rest of the world as if they are normal people
- even when faced with a stark injustice. Who instead say "the contract requires you to pay us for not working" to a society filled with people dealing with precisely that disaster (and no contract).

Way to make it rougher on the rest of us . . . . .
_________________
Ron Berndt
www.trumpet-history.com

2017 Austin Winds Stage 466
1962 Mt. Vernon Bach 43
1954 Holton 49 Stratodyne
1927 Conn 22B
1957 Holton 27 cornet
1985 Yamaha YEP-621
1975 Yamaha YEP-321 Custom
1965 Besson Baritone
1975 Olds Recording R-20

[tomdug]

Update: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/arts/kennedy-center-national-symphony-orchestra-coronavirus.html

EDIT:

Subhead:

The furloughs at the National Symphony Orchestra had drawn the ire of the musicians’ union and some lawmakers, and will now be replaced by a 35 percent pay cut.

[mdtrptguy]

[Athos]

MD has stated it well. Where is the benefit to working people anywhere if working people don't stand up for their contractual rights? Blessed with a strong union? How strong is a union that doesn't stand up for the rights of its members?

If you want to talk tone-deaf, try getting a $25M windfall and laying off your workforce hours later. [

[Andy Del]

Just goes to show that a union is a positive thing. We’ve had decades of union bashing, decimating membership, lessening bargaining power, and giving the whip hand to employers.

Result? Lowest wages growth on record. Until recently, highest profits, highest jumps in executive salaries. Greater gap between highest and lowest earners in society.

This appears to be a case of an employer taking unilateral action, all in the quest for a buck, at the expense of their workers. As a member of two unions, and having been a workplace rep for years, this happens all too often. Usually as a blatant breech of a workplace agreement, or even workplace laws.

Last one I had to deal with was a mixture of both, with the employer using a mix of ignorance, selective reading of acts of parliament, and bald faced bullying to try to get their way. When called out, the HR manager had a hissy fit and went home on stress leave. I am SO happy to not be working there still!

Same employer lost in our federal workplace commission recently over trying to reduce workers entitlements and for future employees having them reclassified to lower paid position, by some 30-40k a year.

I’m so pleased to see that our comrades over there got some redress.
_________________
so many horns, so few good notes...