Re: Cleveland Orchestra in Trouble

On Jan 19, 6:28 am, "richer...@xxxxxxxxxxx" <richer...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/arts/music/19orchestra.html?hp

Fairly good reporting and I think a good illustration of the problems
of keeping major cultural institutions afloat at this point. The gist
of the story is

"The players and management are deadlocked over salaries. The
musicians have proposed freezing their pay through the season, then re-
examining the situation in the summer. The orchestra’s leadership has
asked the players to take a 5 percent pay cut this year, go back to
par next year and accept a 2.5 percent raise the following year. It is
also seeking cuts in benefits.

Management argues that administrators and staff members have taken pay
cuts, and that the players should share in the sacrifice. Mr. Welser-
Möst, whose last reported income was $1.3 million, took a 20 percent
pay cut. Gary Hanson, the executive director, whose last reported
salary was $404,000, took a 15 percent cut and said he now earns what
he started at in 2004."

The players argue that they are behind other major orchestras already,
but I will bet you Cleveland is a cheaper place to live than New York,
for example, and in any event we're in a damaged economy, so those
kinds of comparisons are worth less and less.

Without knowing the details, which are probablly proprietary, I
suspect that the union is doing what it's been doing since the
recession began; digging in their heels at the front lines, even if
it's irrational, because they are concerned that concessions here (and
we are talking about very minor ones asked by the management) will
create a domino effect elsewhere.

Generally, musician unions in America have been, at least in classical
music, one of the real problems for decades (even in halcyon days,
they created serious diffiuclties for recording, which only benefited
foreign orchestras and musicians), and it's unfortunate that in a
'business' that is dying anyway, even in good times, that the
musicians unions have taken the position they have. There's nothing
that would forbid the union, after the three year contract, to go for
signifcant improvements if the economy had turned around, so it's not
as if there's a long term issue here. Management is simply asking a
2.5% giveback for one year, then a hold steady for one year and a 2.5%
increase in year three, and unless the other give backs are onerous,
most Americans are suffering with much greater problems. The key for
any arts organization in a time like this is flexibility, on all kinds
of fronts, and the union position isn't that.

=============

Yes, I think the union leadership could be more accommodating without
fear of being accused of Szelling out its members. More important than
the per cent of the proposed cutbacks, I think, is their starting
point. Apparently the average salary of the members of the Cleveland
Orchestra is $115,000. With Ohio being one of the rust belt states
that have fallen on really tough economic times in recent years,
people making $100,000/year are not going to get much sympathy from
the average Joe. Considering the aesthetic morass in which most of us
working slobs dwell, too, one would think that being a musician would
be one of the most gratifying jobs in the world.

The problem of course is that when thinking about money, people cast
their eyes upward, rarely glancing downward. In in the weekly PGA
tournaments, the golfer who comes in twelfth will often make more
than $115,000 -- for one week. The winner will usually make between
$900,000 and $1.3 millon. The tennis players at the ongoing Australian
Open who have gotten knocked out in the first round, will earn $18,000
-- for perhaps an hour's work, even if they lose 6-0, 6-0. The
winners of the men's and women's singles will probably earn close to
$1.5 million. By those standards the talented, hard-working members
of the Cleveland Orchestra, who have entertained countless thousands
over the years, seem terribly underpaid. But in an environment where
500 people will apply for a single real-world $30,000-$40,000 /annum
job (at least in California) these days, it's hard to extend much
sympathy to a cellist who makes several times the salary of the
average working person.

It's a crazy world.

Pat
.

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