Posted by Jay Bertolet on June 16, 2000 at 10:52:08:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Who is he? posted by ken k again on June 16, 2000 at 10:07:07:
Amen to that!!! You can thank congress for the problem since Florida is a right to work state. That means, in a nutshell, that players do not have to be a member of the union to do their jobs. As such, the union has no power at all to regulate the industry here, all they can really do is make suggestions. The real power of any union is the threat of the withholding of services for non-compliance. That threat can't exist in Florida as long as the union holds no authority with the musicians here. As it is now, any orchestra's management here can hire non-union musician "scabs" to replace striking musicians as they need them. Just look at what is happening with the Atlanta City Ballet in Georgia, another right to work state. And ask any member of the now defunct Florida Symphony which used to be based in Orlando. One of the major contributing factors to their demise, as explained to me, was the existance of a huge pool of musicians (at Disney) who were underpaid and resorted to outside gigging to help make ends meet. As a result, price wars abounded until the symphony could no longer compete with the below scale wages other contractors were submitting when bidding for work. And all the while, the union could do nothing because for the most part these were non-union musicians. And what incentive did their board have to raise more money for the symphony when they could get part time musicians from Disney so much cheaper?
This is why you'll never hear me recommending students to audition for the New World Symphony Orchestra here in Miami Beach. They are a non-union orchestra made up of college players who are paid slave wages, have a huge endowment, and basically could put the orchestra I work for out of business if they wanted to. The union tried to work out a deal with them, negotiating what is known as a "fence" agreement that limits the types of services they can do. But after the completion of months of negotiating, the NWSO has not signed the agreement. And what pressure can the union put on them? Very few, if any, of the musicians are union members. The only viable control that was suggested was to alert musicians from other major orchestras about the situation and ask them not to come here and solo or do masterclasses with the NWSO until the fence agreement was signed. I thought this was a really good idea because one of the biggest benefits of the NWSO experience is the number of masterclasses that you get from top line professional players. But for whatever reason, my colleagues in other orchestras have largely chosen to ignore the situation and have given masterclasses and performances anyway. It makes me wonder what people are thinking. It also helps me to understand the rumblings I've heard about the Chicago Civic starting to run a similar situation. If somebody could pull that kind of stuff in the backyard of the CSO, anything is possible.
My opinion for what its worth...