Symphony musicians sign contract

By Donecia Pea
doneciapea@gannett.com

The nearly yearlong battle between Shreveport Symphony Orchestra musicians and management has come to an end with all musicians on board for the 2008-09 season.

"Their deadline for (signing the contract) was on Monday and we're pleased that they were all signed up," said Scott Green, symphony executive director. However, for the musicians it's not a happy ending.

"The employer imposed an unacceptable set of terms and conditions of employment on the musicians. In other words, they crammed them down their throats," said Chandler Teague, principal timpani player and spokesman for the symphony musicians.

"In order to maintain their personal employment relationship with the employer, musicians signed annual individual contracts."

However, Green said that musicians signed a three-year contract. The new contract switches core or full-time musicians to a per-service pay structure, resulting in a 75 percent salary cut, from $12,693 to $3,123 for the 2008-09 season and the elimination of 24 full-time core positions as of Sept. 1.

The board has insisted that such drastic changes were necessary to overcome years of financial instability that stem as far back as 2001, when the symphony accumulated a loss of more than $700,000.

Last month, the symphony's board of directors moved to impose its proposal after negotiations between the board and musicians came to halt in late May.

While in the past, contracts were signed collectively as an agreement between the musicians' union Local 116 and symphony management, the new contracts were signed individually by each musician.

"These agreements do not bind each musician collectively to a relationship with the employer. There is still a union at the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra," Teague said.

Green said they are now preparing for the new season, which will be announced in August, when tickets will go on sale. "We're looking forward to an exciting new season and a new day for the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra," he said.

"We had to find out what our commitment was from our musicians and then we will involve the community in creating a new strategic plan so that we can truly have an organization that the community wants and can support," Green said. "It's all too easy to be the expert and tell the community what they want, but to be more successful we need to make sure the community is involved."

The change to a per-service structure leaves an additional 20 openings for musicians. Music director Michael Butterman will appoint those positions for this season, but after that auditions will be held for those slots, starting next spring.
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July 18, 2008


Symphony musicians negotiator says it's not over

Representative: Individual agreements not as binding collectively.

By Donecia Pea
doneciapea@gannett.com

Contracts were signed, but Shreveport Symphony Orchestra musicians say the bargaining battle is not over.

"It's really wrong for them (management) to assume this is the end of the bargaining period. As far as I'm concerned, the fun's just beginning," said the musicians' lead negotiator, Christopher Durham, of the American Federation of Musicians' New York office.

After nearly a year of gridlocked negotiations, management imposed its plan to switch core, or full-time, musicians from a salary to a per-service pay structure, which results in a 75 percent pay cut from $12,693 to $3,123 for the 2008-09 season and the elimination of 24 full-time core positions as of Sept. 1.

On Monday, all musicians signed individual contracts. Durham, however, said he wants to make it clear, on behalf of the musicians, these contracts only maintain the musicians' employment with the organization and do not bind them collectively to a relationship with the employer. Nor does it mean they've settled the terms and conditions of that bargaining agreement.

"These individual agreements each musician signed do not prevent them from refusing to perform any time next season," Durham said.

However, musicians aren't ready to say the s-word: strike.

Chandler Teague, principal timpani player and spokesman for the symphony musicians, said he couldn't comment on whether musicians are considering a strike. "We've signed our contracts for now, and that's where we are."

Durham added, "We don't want to scare the money out of the community. What we want is for somebody, an expert in the field of symphonic management who understands how a symphony works, to take charge of this situation, sit down with these people and make it happen."

Bobby Gilliam, attorney for symphony management, said,"We understand that there is a union, but the symphony was asking each musician to indicate to the symphony that they would be available to play next year so that the symphony could plan and so the musicians could plan and know their schedules for next year."

While symphony Executive Director Scott Green maintains musicians signed individual three-year contracts starting with the 2008-09 season, Durham said there was never any discussion of extending beyond one year with individual musicians' agreements. A fax of the musicians' agreement provided by symphony management indicates the contract is for Sept. 1, 2008, through June 30, 2011.

"The employer's issuance of those individual agreements with a three-year term was illegal, and we're still assessing what we want to do with that," Durham said.

Gilliam said they don't agree with that finding and "as always, we will move forward and speak to the union as needed. ... We abide by the terms of the agreement. And we're moving from there and doing our best to make this a successful season."