'No' vote urged on DSO's final offer
Strikers urged by their negotiating committee to reject DSO's proposal
Michael H. Hodges / Detroit News Fine Arts Writer
The negotiating committee of the striking Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians recommended Thursday that its members vote to reject what DSO officials have called their "final" offer.
The musicians will vote tonight and Saturday on the proposal, which the committee members say falls short on issues like salary and number of weeks worked.
Results of the vote will be announced Saturday afternoon. Voting tonight and tomorrow morning will be by Internet to accommodate the 15 or so musicians temporarily playing with other orchestras.
DSO officials had asked for a response by the end of Thursday, but said they'll give the musicians time before taking further action which could well involve canceling the rest of the 2010-11 season.
"We're not going to take any action until their members have a chance to vote," said DSO spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt.
This would be the second time that a deadline for possibly canceling the rest of the season has been pushed off. The DSO board had said a settlement had to be in hand by 5 p.m. Feb. 11, but suspended that when talks began in earnest that evening with the help of four intermediaries.
Management and musicians have wrangled over how to allocate $34 million in orchestra pay and benefits, and an extra $2 million in opt-in community and educational activities.
The plan that's under consideration would cut first-year base salaries from $104,650 to somewhere in the low $80,000 range, though management has declined to give a precise figure.
At a news conference Thursday morning, musicians said the management offer fell far short of what they thought they'd all agreed on when the two sides met earlier in the evening.
"The mediators left at 10:30 Sunday night in the belief that the deal was done," said principal horn and negotiator Karl Pituch.
But three hours later, he said, management presented a plan musicians felt was markedly different from what had been discussed.
Executive vice-president Paul Hogle said the DSO would withhold comment until Saturday.
The musicians also identified the four mediators who tried to broker an agreement over the weekend: Sen. Carl Levin, his nephew Andy Levin, acting director of the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth; Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans; and Matthew Cullen, CEO of Rock Enterprises.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110218...vote-urged-on-DSOs-final-offer#ixzz1EKdzpT88
Question #1 ? How long will those representing the current members of the DSO jeopardize an entire concert season instead of accepting a total average per player compensation of $133,000 annually?
Management's Real Offer $74,100 for current members$64,600 for new
Last Updated: February 19. 2011 3:27PM
Striking musicians vote no on DSO's 'final offer'
Michael H. Hodges / Detroit News Fine Arts Writer
Striking Detroit Symphony Orchestra musicians voted today to turn down management's "final offer."
Today's developments come on the heels of last-minute bargaining that started the evening of Friday, Feb. 11, once a board-imposed deadline for a settlement passed. The board had instructed DSO officials to cancel the rest of the 2010-11 season at that point, but suspended that once talks began late Friday with the help of four big-name mediators: Sen. Carl Levin; his nephew Andy Levin, deputy director of the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth; Quicken Loans chairman Dan Gilbert; and Rock Enterprise president Matt Cullen.
By the evening of Sunday, Feb. 13, the two sides were apparently close enough for the mediators to leave, after bringing them face to face for the first time in these latest negotiations, by far the most extensive since the strike began Oct. 4. Bargaining continued, off and on, through 4 a.m. Monday morning.
But despite the apparent progress, there followed a series of offers and counter-offers that each side appeared to find inadequate. Management made what it termed its final offer Tuesday evening, with a request that the musicians, as a body, vote by Thursday evening.
A union bylaw, however, required a 72-hour waiting period before a vote from the time they first received the offer (unless overridden by a supermajority of the members). Management said they'd hold off on any decisions about canceling the season until the vote was reported.
On Thursday, the players' negotiating committee recommended against accepting the proposal. Musicians began voting online to accommodate 15-plus players who've taken temporary gigs at other orchestras Friday at 7 p.m. The vote concluded today at 2 p.m.
For the past few weeks, management and musicians have wrangled over how to allocate $34 million in orchestra pay and benefits, as well as a particularly contentious $2 million in opt-in community outreach funding that would boost pay for those who sign on by $7,100.
The strike started back in October after management declared an impasse and implemented a 33 percent pay cut for current musicians, from $104,650 to $70,200 in the first year of the three-year contract. Musicians had offered a 22 percent cut to $82,000.
The two sides have now substantially narrowed the difference, with the DSO raising first-year pay by about $10,000 to the low $80,000s. They have yet, however, to give a specific number.
DSO executive vice-president Paul Hogle said earlier this week the DSO would withhold comment until today.
mhodges@detnews.com
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110219...-vote-no-on-DSOs-final-offer#ixzz1ERJBYvr0
Last Updated: February 20. 2011 1:00AM
Is DSO season suspension the end?
Michael H. Hodges / Detroit News Fine Arts Writer
When the Detroit Symphony Orchestra suspended the rest of the 2010-2011 season Saturday, it set in motion events that some fear could spell doom for the 123-year-old ensemble, long regarded as one of the nation's very best.
The DSO board took this step after striking musicians rejected what management termed its final offer. While the DSO announcement held out the hope that part of the season could still be salvaged if a settlement were suddenly reached, the general outlook was bleak.
"Even though we were careful in using 'suspension'" rather than cancellation, said DSO executive vice-president Paul Hogle, "no one should misinterpret this as some tactic. The season is off. Artists have been released from pencil contracts. This is the end."
Musicians have long argued that suspension or cancellation, whatever you call it, was not necessarily a "nuclear option" that would torpedo the orchestra.
"There is a deal to be made if management would sit down with us and negotiate in good faith," said violinist and member of the negotiating committee Joe Goldman, "instead of issuing ultimatums and threats."
But outsiders warn that suspending the season involves a leap into the unknown, one that not only threatens the orchestra's current hold on audiences and donors, but could put the 2011-2012 season and the orchestra's entire future at risk.
"It plunges them into the black hole of a negative-revenue spiral," said Chicago-based orchestra consultant Drew McManus, who has followed the Detroit strike closely.
"The big question now is whether they've stopped planning for the next season," he added. "This one is a wash. But if they don't have all the season planning activity in place for next season, which would include artist reservations and advance ticket sales, they enter that negative spiral. Once you've crossed that event threshold, there's no pulling out of it."
Ordinarily, the DSO would be announcing that new season this month and selling advance tickets, a major source of revenue. But with no settlement in hand and no orchestra they can hardly sign contracts with guest conductors and soloists. With no new season to promote, they can't sell tickets.
There are cases where orchestras survived strikes that killed entire seasons, but they're not particularly hopeful. The Honolulu Symphony lost most of two seasons to a strike in the mid-1990s, according to John T. Bence, director of communications at the League of American Orchestras, but is now in bankruptcy.
Were the DSO strike never to settle, said Peter Pastreich, former executive director of the SanFrancisco Symphony, it's possible musicians could organize a new ensemble, though he added that the track record in that regard isn't encouraging.
"DSO members won't all move to Cleveland or San Francisco," he said. "There aren't enough jobs to absorb them all." Like Denver and San Jose, players could try to form a cooperative orchestra on their own, sometimes with the aid of dissident board members, should any exist.
"But generally," Pastreich said, "the new orchestra is substantially diminished from the one that went out of business."
Hiring an entirely new orchestra isn't much of an option either. In the highly unionized world of top orchestras, McManus said, any musician taking a replacement job risks career suicide.
"They'd get blacklisted and probably fined by the American Federation of Musicians," he said, "and wouldn't be able to perform with other orchestras. It'd hurt their audition chances, too."
Hit hard like many cultural organizations by the downturn in corporate and individual giving after 2008, the DSO has struggled to keep its nose above water. The organization has been dipping into its small endowment now at just $19 million from $56.8 million in 2008 to cover annual deficits that last year reached $8.8 million.
It also owes $54 million in loans to a group of unhappy banks it needs to repay, and hopes to renegotiate. There again, however, renegotiation may be impossible without a contract.
Originally, management gave musicians two contract proposals. Proposal A, which expired in August, reduced wages $104,650 to $74,880 the first year rising to $79,950 in the third year and included 13 to 11 weeks of layoffs. Proposal B imposed Oct. 4, the day the strike began reduced wages from $104,650 to $70,200 in the first year, rising to $73,800 in the third year and included 16 weeks of layoffs all three years. Both offers required sweeping work-rule changes requiring greater community and educational outreachThe musicians, on the other hand, proposed wages of $82,000 in the first year rising to $96,600 the third year and six to 11 weeks of layoffs.
Both sides edged closer to one another in ensuing months, with management boosting its offer to $34 million over three years and the musicians lowering theirs to about $38.
On Dec. 16, Sen. Carl Levin and then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed a three-year total budget for orchestra costs of $36 million $3 million more than the deficit-plagued orchestra said it could manage when the strike started, and some $3 million less than players initially demanded.
Once DSO officials accepted the general framework of the Granholm/Levin $36 million proposal last month, a settlement looked within reach.
But the additional $2 million that management threw into the pot was restricted to community and educational outreach work the players could opt in to, but didn't change their basic compensation package.
For the past couple weeks, the musicians have argued that at least a part of that $2 million should be carved off for their pay and benefits.
Management, however, insisted that the unnamed donors restricted its use to outreach.
"The price of peace has never been cheaper," said McManus. "For the low, low price of $2 million, you can determine the fate of the DSO. That's essentially what we're talking about."
mhodges@detnews.com
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110220/ENT01/102200314/Is-DSO-season-suspension-the-end?#ixzz1EVNfqA6a
Last Updated: February 20. 2011 1:00AM
DSO strike timeline
The Detroit News
In 2009, as the economy turns down, the DSO reports a drop in ticket sales of more than 17 percent from 2008. Meanwhile, the declining stock market and a falloff in contributions force the orchestra to eat into its endowment, which progressively dwindles from a peak of nearly $100 million to less than $50 million.
In 2010, the orchestra faces economic crisis. Unable to make payments on its $54 million in bank loans for Orchestra Place and The Max, the DSO also reports cumulative budget deficits that have reached some $9 million in three years. The unrestricted portion of the endowment drops to $23 million.
Aug. 2010: As the musicians' contract nears its expiration, management asks for salary cuts of nearly 30 percent. The musicians' counter-proposal of cuts totaling about 21 percent is rejected.
Oct. 4, 2010: The musicians strike.
Nov. 24, 2010: In talks that broke down after one day, management increased its base offer by $1 million to $34 million in orchestra costs over three years. Musicians come down $1 million to $38 million.
Dec. 1, 2010: The orchestra's lenders repay the orchestra's bondholders and call a $54 million loan. The transaction, completed by a five-bank consortium that includes JPMorgan Chase, Comerica and BankofAmerica, exchanges bonds set to mature in 2030 for debt controlled directly by the banks.
Dec. 16, 2010: After months of wrangling and vitriol, negotiations got a new spark when U.S. Senator Carl Levin and then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm propose a compromise totaling $36 million over three years $2 million less than the musicians sought and $2 million more than management's latest offer. Musicians endorse the plan, but DSO board chairman Stanley Frankel rejects it, saying the orchestra cannot afford to raise its offer.
Jan. 21, 2011 : Management and musicians meet to discuss the Granholm-Levin proposal.
Jan. 27: The two sides grapple over the additional $2 million management has added to the pot. Management says it's a gift from donors who stipulated the money must be used for educational and outreach programs. The musicians insist part of the money be included in their base salary. Talks break down.
Feb. 10: Music director Leonard Slatkin ends his silence to express optimism that a settlement is near.
Feb. 11: The DSO board of directors set a deadline for a settlement of 5 p.m., or the remainder of the season will be scrapped. Indirect talks start up through big-name intermediaries: Sen. Carl Levin; his nephew Andy Levin, deputy director of the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth; Quicken Loans chairman Dan Gilbert; and Rock Enterprise president Matt Cullen.
Sunday Feb. 13-Monday, Feb. 14: Mediators leave as musicians and management sit down for face-to-face negotiations run from Sunday night till almost 5 a.m. Monday morning in the Quicken Loans offices in the Compuware Building.
Wednesday, Feb. 16: Management provides the union with a final offer that it says must be accepted by close of business Feb. 17. A union bylaw, however, required a 72-hour waiting period before a vote from the time they first received the offer (unless overridden by a supermajority of the members). Management agrees to hold off decisions until the vote is reported.
Thursday, Feb. 17: The players' negotiating committee recommended against accepting the proposal.
Friday, Feb. 18: Musicians began voting online to accommodate 15-plus players who've taken temporary gigs at other orchestras at 7 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 19: The vote concluded at 2 p.m. By 3 p.m., the musicians announced they'd turned down management's final offer. A few minutes later, management announced that in light of that decision, musicians were being released from their contracts and all remaining orchestra concerts through June are suspended.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110220/ENT01/102200312/DSO-strike-timeline#ixzz1EVPERggY
newest info is that the musician union now is working with other unions such as the AFL-CIO to prevent any unionized industry to use the orchestra theater/max for a venue. Attempting to put pressure on the DSO mgt as they try to scramble for other revenue streams to stay out of insolvency.
http://detnews.com/article/20110221/SCHOOLS/102210355
They're 2/3 there already!Sounds like a plan.
1) Force chapter 7
2) ?????
3) Profit!
what could go wrong?
newest info is that the musician union now is working with other unions such as the AFL-CIO to prevent any unionized industry to use the orchestra theater/max for a venue. Attempting to put pressure on the DSO mgt as they try to scramble for other revenue streams to stay out of insolvency.
FWIW, this really is the way that I've seen unions operate. It does make sense, from a union perspective: musicians strike, but management says that they'll just rent out the building for something else and still profit. Teamsters union hears of it and says that they won't drive trucks to the building. THAT'S a problem for management. They can rent out the building for other things, but none of the "acts" can get there.Sounds like a plan.
1) Force chapter 7
2) ?????
3) Profit!
what could go wrong?
FWIW, this really is the way that I've seen unions operate. It does make sense, from a union perspective: musicians strike, but management says that they'll just rent out the building for something else and still profit. Teamsters union hears of it and says that they won't drive trucks to the building. THAT'S a problem for management. They can rent out the building for other things, but none of the "acts" can get there.
One of my many jobs had me working with unions. It was an informative job experience.
The biggest problem with putting the employer under is that the bank captures all the cash and assets of the DSO. But then this allows the musicians to start their own Symphony from the ground up, including finding/buying/renting a venue, buying new equipment, new managment and all that goes with it.
For some reason I don't think the musicians have the funds to do that.
And I don't think the current board, who are all probably heavy donors, would bother.
But, all of these arguments dance around the real truth, that being that there is not an audience with enough money to support such an organization where the employees are being paid anything approaching a decent wage and benefit package. Offer what is viable and you'll have quality folks bailing - the "greedy musician" appellation only goes so far, as all of them have obligations that they incurred when they were being paid a decent wage.
The debt already run up (under a legitimate and fully negotiated arrangement - no one held a gun to either side's head, although the musicians did have a "gun at their head" in that they have to earn a living wage) was not incurred in the last year, or ten years, or perhaps twenty years. The endowment was bled down over a good long period, as costs (in addition to wages were rising.
It's a long term problem for all of these groups (the shrinking audience), and until tastes change they are all going to suffer to one extent or another.
World Socialist Web SiteDetroit News continues its slanders against Detroit Symphony musicians
Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International
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By Shannon Jones
16 February 2011
A February 15 piece by op-ed columnist Robert Laurie appearing in the Detroit News online edition contains a vicious rant against striking musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, who are entering the 20th week of a strike against management demands for massive concessions.
The piece is merely the latest, although perhaps the foulest and most ignorant, attack on the musicians by the News which has parroted the line of the DSO board throughout the strike.
Facing declining ticket sales and falling private contributions, orchestra management imposed drastic cuts last October, including a 33 percent reduction in pay, 42 percent for new musicians and takeaways from pensions and health benefits. It also imposed changes in work rules that would transform the DSO into essentially a part-time orchestra with musicians forced to engage in all sorts of non-performance related duties.
The musicians union offered to take a 22 percent pay cut, which it has since said it is willing to increase, with a partial restoration in the third year. Musicians say the deep cuts demanded by management would do irreparable harm to the DSO, which has a well-deserved reputation as one of Americas leading orchestras.
Negotiations are continuing past a management-imposed February 11 deadline for a decision on the cancellation of the balance of the 2010-11 concert season. While the DSO board has apparently agreed to increase slightly its pay offer, many issues remain outstanding, including managements demand for drastic work rule changes.
In his piece, entitled Union greed: from the UAW to DSO, Laurie cites the deep poverty of Detroitclose to 50 percent real unemployment, an annual per capita income of just $15,000 a year for those who are employedto argue that musicians should gratefully accept whatever management offers.
Its not as if the average Detroiter will die if they don't hear Tchaikovskys Winter Daydreams as the first snow flies, writes Laurie.
Theyre more concerned with keeping the heat on.
Later Laurie talks of DSO management confronting the greed and entitlement mentality of musicians.
To claim that the struggle to maintain a halfway decent level of compensation is an example of greed is absurd. The conditions in Detroit are horrific, but in what way are musicians responsible? The city is facing the impact of decades of downsizing and cost cutting by the auto industry, which after pocketing billions of dollars in profits off the sweat and blood of auto workers, has abandoned the city.
In any event, does Laurie have a difficulty keeping his heat on? Is he a champion of the low-paid and the poor? Hardly. He is an ultra-right, anti-communist fanatic. One of his fellow contributors at Biggovernment.com is Michael Walsh, who helped initiate the attack on the DSO musicians at a June 2009 board meeting, where he called for a complete remodeling of the orchestra in light of the economic crisis. Lauries diatribe will be dismissed with contempt by anyone aware of American political and social reality.
Musicians, like the vast majority of the working population, face the impact of Detroits decay, a product of the capitalist profit system, an irrational social order that subordinates the needs of society to the interests of a handful of billionaires.
Laurie, a reactionary philistine, cannot conceal his indifference to the fate of the DSO. Enormous damage has already been done to the orchestra, perhaps irreparable damage. The fact is the destruction of the DSO would be a serious blow to art and culture, not just in Detroit but nationally and internationally. There is no doubt that the concessions imposed on DSO musicians will be copied by other major orchestras.
An annual salary of $100,000 a year does not sound like an awful lot when you compare it to the multi-billion bonuses regularly pocketed by investment bankers, yet there is no suggestion by Laurie that they should be asked to sacrifice. The DSO musicians are highly trained and talented professionals, drawn from all over the world. Many started playing at a young age. Their contribution to society is infinitely greater than that of a hedge fund manager, commodity trader or right-wing blogger.
The claim that there is no money for a major symphony orchestra in Detroit or for that matter jobs and decent wages for workers is patently false. The corporate elite in Michigan are wealthier than ever. The Detroit suburb or Bloomfield Hills is the fourth wealthiest city in the United States. Nine Michigan residents made the Forbes list of the worlds 400 richest billionaires in 2010. Just one of those billionaires, Amway founder Richard DeVos, has a net worth of $4.5 billion, more than 25 times the annual budget for the National Endowment for the Arts.
Many of those on the DSO board of directors are themselves multi-millionaires. Jim Nicholson, former DSO board president, is chairman and CEO of PVS Chemicals with annual sales of $45 million. Other executives on the DSO board include former GM president Lloyd E. Reuss and former Masco Corporation vice president and current DTE Energy board member Lillian Bauder. In 2009 Bauder received $163,914 in directors fess and stock awards from DTE and $174,212 in 2008. During the same period DTE Energy imposed sharp rate increases while disconnecting service to hundreds of thousands of homes in southeast Michigan.
These individuals could pay for the DSO budget deficit out of their pockets.
The title of Lauries piece creates the impression that the UAW and other unions are backing the DSO musicians. That is hardly the case. The unions long ago abandoned any struggle in defense of workers. None of the major union bodies in the areathe UAW, the Detroit Metro AFL-CIO, the Teamstershas lifted a finger in defense of the musicians.
Contrary to the claim of Laurie that no one in Detroit is interested in the fate of the DSO, striking musicians have received an appreciative response from the public at the well-attended support concerts they have organized throughout the area, including at Detroit homeless shelters. Musicians across the United States and internationally have donated generously to support their struggle.
The strike by DSO musicians deserves the sympathy and support of all working people. The World Socialist Web Site calls on musicians to reject all suggestion that they should shoulder the responsibility for the crisis of the DSO must take and continue to turn out to mobilize the widest support for their struggle.