It was a surreal moment – I was backstage at The Music Hall in Cincinnati for Josh Bell to come out of his dressing room so that we could go onstage and perform. We were opening the season for the Cincinnati Symphony and people were milling around, preparing for the next piece, multiple conversations happening. Suddenly someone said the words that made heads snap around and jaws hit the floor – “Chicago has just gone on strike.”
After 20 years of experience in the crazy, crazy business that we call classical music I am not often caught completely flat-footed. This is a particularly small field of work, and rumors about what is or is not about to happen travel quickly. However, this situation came as a bolt out of the blue. The general reaction that evening to this news was of disbelief. We all knew about Indianapolis, Atlanta, SPCO, M.O., Louisville… but Chicago? What were they thinking?
Labor relations at the CSO has been famously contentious since the dawn of time. Books have been written about them. Traditional approaches to orchestra/management relations at the CSO have the same staying power as the orchestral dress code. It’s Tails now and it’s going to be Tails until the end of time! This dynamic more closely resembles the history at Caterpillar than it does any other orchestra. I know this from personal experience having spent 10 years on the staff as Apprentice, Assistant, Associate, and Resident Conductor (yes, I’ve had more titles @ the CSO than anybody!) I still have many friends there, and I always pay special attention to how the CSO is doing because I want my friends to thrive and carry on their great tradition of music making.
As word leaked out about what were the key factors in this labor action things seemed a little odd. It seemed… small change, especially compared to what is going on in the aforementioned orchestras. Further information did nothing to alleviate this feeling. If anything it highlighted that it seems everyone was caught with their collective Tails-pants down around their ankles. If there is a manual on “How Not To Strike” then this would be textbook case #1.
First of all, to leave a couple thousand patrons stuck at the door on a Saturday night is not going to win you any friends, especially in today’s world. The abruptness of this action was shocking, and it makes one wonder how much information about negotiations had actually been disseminated outside of the negotiating committee. Initial statements from the committee to the press freely admit that supporting material for a strike was not available because they hadn’t had time to put it together. Subsequent material was vague and contradictory even for those of us in the business who are used to reading between the lines. And to position this action as a statement about what was going on at those other orchestras smacked of opportunism.
Reaction was swift in other arenas. I had a facebook friend, a self-declared staunch unionist, state on-line that he could not support this action and saw no rhyme or reason to it. He was not the only one. Everyone I talked to had a reaction that ranged from outright disbelief to that classic armed forces statement: “WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT???” Essentially without supporting docs, preparing the public, and reading the tea leaves of what is going on in the business the musicians of the CSO lost the PR battle before it even began.
The result was one of the shortest strikes I can remember. Quite obviously reality came crashing down on all and sundry, negotiations were quickly resumed, and a deal was reached before more fallout could hit like a solar storm. But the damage had been done. Even that wily old curmudgeon Norman Lebrecht in his necropsy of the strike put the following at #1:
Lesson 1: Players in luxury orchestras cannot afford to strike. In 2012, musicians with average pay of $175,000 cannot expect much solidarity when their fellow-professionals across the land are enduring savage pay cuts and lockouts.
Which leads to another thought: there have been two disparate streams of orchestral building the last 20 years. The very top orchestras have continued to expand their bloated budgets to the point where they are coming hard up to the ceiling of unsustainability. Look at the budgets of the “top” orchestras in the US today and you see a sea of red ink. We have donor fatigue, a limping economy, and a brand that is fading in the public eye. One deficit is bad enough. Years of multi-million dollar deficits is a dead canary. I doubt that this can continue and nothing that has happened in the past 3 years has done anything to erase that doubt.
On the other side of the aisle is that “next level” of orchestras. Despite some rough times, musician givebacks, etc., they have found a more prudent level of budgetary survival. True, their musicians don’t make a starting salary of $145K a year, but these orchestras are not in disaster mode. Cincinnati would perhaps be the best example of this approach. Damn good band, really good people, and they on paper don’t seem to be about to go through bankruptcy, a lockout, or any other such nonsense. The focus is on long term sustainability.
There is a lesson to be learned here. Musicians should not be worrying about what their colleagues in other orchestras make. Saying that “if we don’t get X amount of dollars we won’t be a top 10 orchestra anymore” is not a prudent negotiating point. We should be focused on what our own constituency can support and how to connect to our home community. And we should most definitely be aware of what else is going on in the world before we try to make public arguments that the average Joe will find utterly ludicrous. Most people reading this blog, I am sure, will be well aware of the difficulties involved in playing an instrument at a ridiculously high level, day in and day out, on tour, on recordings, and trying to keep one’s sanity. It’s really, really hard to do, but Joe doesn’t know that. Joe is not going to understand your demands for a mid $100K starting salary when that is close to 4 times the average income of a middle-class family. We’ve got to come up with a better argument for how we approach budgets, musicians salaries, and what we can ask our society to pony up for this “luxury” item called your local symphony orchestra.
Perhaps we should do something outrageous. Conductors, after all, are essentially referees. Maybe we should take a page from the NFL and lockout all professional conductors? Have the big pro orchestras conducted by people who’s experience is just on the high school level, or better yet, those who conduct to recordings in their living rooms. If it garners even 1/10 of 1% of the outrage that the Green Bay-Seattle debacle did it might just be worth it. At least it would show that Americans actually care about their orchestras.
Very good post. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who felt like this strike came out of the blue. I think your arguments against the “keeping up with the Joneses” business model are very sound. As for locking out conductors, don’t get me started..
“It’s really, really hard to do, but Joe doesn’t know that. Joe is not going to understand your demands for a mid $100K starting salary when that is close to 4 times the average income of a middle-class family.”
Yo also lose Joe completely when you try to tell him that your job is so much harder and more difficult than his, which of course it is, but that it’s also much more important than his, which let’s face it, if he’s an EMT, a plumber, a bartender who works as a volunteer firefighter, or a classroom teacher, it damn well might not be in some people’s eyes.
And to say that to people — “We’re paid more than you because we’re more important that you are” — and then turn around and give them an insincere smile and ask for their money and support is crazy. It smacks of that creepy guy in the bar who hates women but who wants a date more than anything and hasn’t figured out yet that no cologne in the world can cover his total disdain for anything female, which is why women steer clear of him. o_O
And what sort of connection can be made between music like that and people like Joe, when that music is being played by people who consider themselves so much more elevated than he and worth so much more money? “Come to the symphony so you can properly admire your superiors,” is not good outreach.
re: *We’ve got to come up with a better argument for how we approach budgets, musicians salaries, and what we can ask our society to pony up for this “luxury” item called your local symphony orchestra.*
Food-4-thought comment from a mutual colleague who said: *In Europe the town council sits down & says OK we`ve got waterworks, firefighters, police, orchestras, road-paving*……etc. Look at China now! Huge resources are being applied now because the attention & will are in motion…