Re: Re: Florida Philharmonic Orchestra Strike


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Posted by Jay Bertolet on October 21, 2000 at 08:19:48:

In Reply to: Re: Florida Philharmonic Orchestra Strike posted by Sorry, I disagree on October 20, 2000 at 23:32:39:

Please, try to be informed before you make sweeping judgments!!! I'm sorry the website isn't exactly up to date but things are happening here pretty fast and people are busy and stressed out. We held a press conference just yesterday and we announced that we will accept the wage conditions already on the table (22.8% over 5 years) if management will continue to negotiate the other items in dispute. How they respond should tell you something about what is going on here.

And just so you know, our salary demand of 32% is based on the percentage we are below the average ICSOM weekly salary as of last year. Of course, we service the 7th largest constituency in the country and we have an annual budget that is pretty close to the median amount of all ICSOM orchestra budgets. We are still willing to accept the wages the management is proposing because we feel that they represent progress in redressing our needs even though they don't really get us where we need to be.

Please don't make judgments about our wage demands without knowing what other factors affect our job. No other orchestra travels as much as we do to get to our job. We play in something like 15 differents halls on a regular basis, spread out over 3 counties and about a stretch of 100 miles. Just getting to the job is expensive! And our scheduling situation is unbelievable. I'm not even going to try and explain what the problems are because this post would be too long to actually read. Suffice it to say that the percentage of musicians in this orchestra that are going on disability because of work related injuries is above average.

If you knew of our contract and the terms and conditions which we work under, you'd understand that comment about slavery. Please, I will respect differing opinions only if they are informed ones.


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