Wow. I had to re-read the article for a third time today because it just didn’t make sense the other two times. There’s an orchestra in the United States of America that’s threatening to go on strike? In these economic times? Guess denial ain’t just a river in Egypt, or in Chicago for that matter.
I am not privy to any of the particulars here so I should probably keep my mouth shut, but since that’s never happened in the past I see no reason to change things up. I am of the opinion that 99% of the time it is a terrible idea for any orchestra anywhere to go on strike. For one thing, the odds are strongly against the general public being in your camp. They’ll take one look at your paycheck/workload and quickly dismiss you as a bunch of whining artist pansies.
There is also the tremendous damage that a strike does to any arts organization. You have already lost the goodwill of your audience (see above paragraph) and odds are your donors aren’t going to be so happy with you either. Needless to say when the media gets a hold of this the results are usually not very pretty. The damage to any arts organization from a strike usually takes at least 5 years for said organization to overcome, if it is overcome at all. Having said that there are some obvious situations where the administration and/or the Board of Directors are so far off base that the musicians of the orchestra essentially have no other recourse, but this should definitely be the last resort.
None-the-less, one wonders what is going on @ Lyric. At a time when every other orchestra within earshot has agreed to contractual rollbacks due to these unprecedented economic circumstances, things @ Lyric seem headed down the wrong road. A word of warning – Joe Public, who was featured in my previous post on music education, is going to look at that article (assuming that Joe & Jane Public even care about the Lyric Opera, and that’s a pretty big assumption) and a few numbers are going to leap out at him:
- 18% raise over the last 3 years
- $91,624, for 27 weeks of work and 20 hours of work per week, not including overtime
- 13 percent drop in Lyric Opera subscription sales from 2008
- 29 percent loss to Lyric’s endowment in 2008
As I said, I don’t know what the situation is there, and frankly I probably don’t want to know. But one thing I know for sure – in the court of public opinion the orchestra of the Lyric Opera has already lost. Sorry to say that but I’d be willing to bet my next year’s wages on it, and that’s one economic bet guaranteed to make a good return.
My only suggestion: substitute the word “strike” with “work stoppage” which encompasses strike and lock-out. Both of which have precisely the sort of impact you describe above but the former being initiated by employees whereas the latter is initiated by employer.
Damn good point, Drew.
Excellent point, and well stated. Just look what happened at the Colorado Springs Symphony. The “new” orchestra, in the same location, with the same musicians, etc., is basically unable to win over the music fans they offended by stopping work in their first incarnation.
On the other hand, just as in corporate America, the “workers” of any organization, who actually create the organization’s product with their own hands, will continue to object to giving up salary when the chieftains at the top still make many times more in salary and other benefits.