One of the first high-profile labor tussles of 2010 is brewing at the Cleveland Orchestra, and it points to troubled times for the nation’s elite classical musical ensembles amid the Great Recession.
Orchestra members struck on Monday, the first such work stoppage here in 30 years.
I haven’t been blogging about orchestras in trouble or contract issues with management recently. I guess I just want to avoid the negative, aside from yakking about my bad reeds. But I can’t ignore this, nor can I ignore the problems in Seattle. I will leave you with those links and let you decide what you think.
Of course the management is ‘disappointed’ that the musicians won’t accept a five year concession during a period that ought to see a great resurgence in the economy.
In my view, a year to year re-negotiation until the economy stabilizes would be the answer.
Time consuming, yes, but with goodwill on both sides and a common goal… but that’s always been the rub, hasn’t it…
Well, they had one short strike, eh? Gee, I think another orchestra had a short one too … but that was quite some time ago! 🙂