I do hope so! No one wants a lockout or strike these days. Do they?
Contract negotiations between the management and musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra have begun to harden, setting the stage for a possible strike or lockout as early as next week.
On the eve of 2010, the orchestra’s administration announced that the musicians had terminated the month-to-month extension under which they’ve been playing since September, and that as of midnight, no plan would be in place to pay the artists for work scheduled to begin Tuesday.
The extension was to a three-year contract signed in September 2006. Without a new contract or extension, the players, members of the Cleveland Federation of Musicians, are free to strike.
“[W]e will be operating without a contract, and I am hopeful…that a work stoppage can be avoided,” read a statement by executive director Gary Hanson. “We welcome the impetus to get back to the table.”
The musicians, in response, released their own statement — their first on the matter — noting a willingness to bargain but also expressing reservations about the administration’s demands, which they said stand to diminish the orchestra’s stature and jeopardize the ability to attract and retain the best players.
