There have been a lot of stories in the news lately about the new concessionary contracts at orchestras across the US.\u00a0 They’ve been arrived at as orchestras have been desperately trying to weather the virtually unprecedented recession in the wake of the meltdown of the credit markets.\u00a0 There’s a hidden set of costs that you almost never hear about – cuts to the numbers, pay, and benefits of the staff members of these same orchestras.\u00a0 The staff members don’t have a union to represent their interests, for better or worse, and their jobs and pay are in a more precarious state than those of the musicians, for the most part.\u00a0 In many cases, their benefits package loosely matches what the musicians get, but there isn’t any hard and fast rule about this – usually it’s done as a courtesy to the staff.\u00a0 In some situations, the musicians get a better insurance package, free parking, and other perks that the staff can only dream of.\u00a0 They’re all working very hard on our behalf, and we’re all in this together, I wish that my musician colleagues would remember that the “other side” are human beings with families, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There have been a lot of stories in the news lately about the new concessionary contracts at orchestras across the US.\u00a0 They’ve been arrived at as orchestras have been desperately trying to weather the virtually unprecedented recession in the wake of the meltdown of the credit markets.\u00a0 There’s a hidden set of costs that you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[186,2],"tags":[55],"class_list":["post-2968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-labor-issues","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-orchestra"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-LS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2305,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/04\/08\/more-cuts-for-orchestras\/","url_meta":{"origin":2968,"position":0},"title":"more cuts for orchestras","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"UPDATE 4\/08 [link] The Utah Symphony\/Opera cut 11.5% of of their benefits plus Keith Lockhart takes 10% pay reduction. [link] The Atlanta Symphony musicians have reopened their previously negotiated CBA (which ran through 2011) and will be taking an 8.8% pay cut by the end of 2011 (the first drop\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"scissors","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/scissors-400x221.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2963,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/08\/10\/worth-noting\/","url_meta":{"origin":2968,"position":1},"title":"worth noting","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Just observing a few trends from the latest rounds of labor negotiations for US orchestras: Unpaid furloughs seem to be the way of dealing with labor costs, rather than lowering the pay rate (either per week or per service). Managements are trying to trim costs in their own offices as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "administration"","block_context":{"text":"administration","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/administration-the-orchestra-world-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5127,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/07\/29\/severe-cuts-proposed-in-detroit\/","url_meta":{"origin":2968,"position":2},"title":"severe cuts proposed in detroit","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This came over the PRNewswire today (thanks to Elaine for bringing it to my attention): Detroit Symphony Musicians Targeted for Deep Slashes; Will Other Symphony Orchestra Musicians Also Be Under Gun? DETROIT, July 29 \/PRNewswire\/ -- Salary cuts upwards of 28 percent, drastic cuts in their health insurance, elimination of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "administration"","block_context":{"text":"administration","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/administration-the-orchestra-world-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2952,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/08\/06\/more-cuts-at-us-orchestras\/","url_meta":{"origin":2968,"position":3},"title":"more cuts at US orchestras","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Minnesota Orchestra and Houston Symphony have just concluded negotiations with their musicians that have resulted in substantial cuts in wages, either via pay cuts, unpaid furloughs, or both. In Minnesota [from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune]: Musicians at the Minnesota Orchestra have agreed to concessions in the face of financial pressures\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "labor issues"","block_context":{"text":"labor issues","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/labor-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14305,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/10\/07\/in-solidarity-with-fort-worth-pittsburgh\/","url_meta":{"origin":2968,"position":4},"title":"in solidarity with fort worth and pittsburgh","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Orchestras cannot continue to embrace regressive tactics when it comes to making their business models work. Musicians cannot be outsourced to foreign call centers. We can't (or shouldn't) be replaced with robots or machines. Our training doesn't get cheaper, nor do our instruments, rents, and housing costs. But managements across\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "labor issues"","block_context":{"text":"labor issues","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/labor-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Our shirts say: \"Supporting the Arts means Supporting the Artists\".","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/IMG_8147-500x375.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":176,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/01\/22\/musicians-abusing-their-own-power\/","url_meta":{"origin":2968,"position":5},"title":"orchestral equilibrium","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Check out this story by LA Times classical music critic Mark Swed, then come back and let's talk. I wish that journalists were given the time and space to fully explore the ideas that they either come up with or which are assigned to them by their editors. Since not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}