Minnesota Orchestra Offers Revised Contract Proposal to Musicians' Union

The Minnesota Orchestra Board Negotiating Committee has issued a revised contract proposal in the ongoing labor dispute with the Musicians' Union that would lift the musician lockout and significantly modify both the proposed wage reduction and the number of work rule changes sought. The Board, which met yesterday and approved the revised offer, has requested that the Musicians' Bargaining Committee present the offer to the full Orchestra for an anonymous vote by September 9.

"Our goal with this proposal is to find an immediate way to launch mediation that will be acceptable to the musicians and will also guarantee our concertgoers a full concert season," says Board Negotiating Committee Chair Richard Davis. "The Musicians' Union has made its position clear that they will not negotiate until the lockout is lifted and the musicians are returned to work at their previous levels of compensation, and this offer respects that requirement. The Board is flexible in how we might structure a solution, but it is important to us to be able to guarantee our concertgoers a complete season of concerts even as negotiations proceed."

He continued, "Our window of opportunity is closing, and we hope the union will take this proposal to the musician membership for an official vote as soon as possible. The proposal offers a chance to save our entire 2013-14 season for home audiences and to maintain the Carnegie Hall performances which Osmo Vänskä has noted are personally very important to him."

Yesterday Minnesota Orchestra Music Director Osmo Vänskä said that in order to allow appropriate preparation time for the Orchestra's Carnegie Hall performances on November 2 and 3, the Orchestra musicians will need to be in rehearsals the week of September 30. To facilitate that timeline, management noted that a contract agreement with musicians will need to be reached by September 15, in order to give musicians appropriate notice to return to work by the end of the month.

The central tenets of the revised two-year contract proposal are:

Musicians return to work on September 30 at previous contract rates for a two-month period of "play and talk" negotiations involving the mediator.
If no agreement is reached within the two-month period, musician salaries will be guaranteed at an annual average of $102,200 per musician for the 24 months of the contract. With benefits, the average total compensation will be $135,000.
The proposal includes a revenue split if the Orchestra meets its budget. Under this concept, 33% of excess net earned revenue would be paid out to musicians on a pro-rata basis.
The number of work rule changes requested is significantly reduced.

Proposal will not eliminate Orchestra's deficit

Under the terms of this revised two-year proposal, the Minnesota Orchestra would accrue a deficit of $2.2 million over the course of the contract. "Our aim was to eliminate our deficit entirely," said Board Chair Jon Campbell, "but the Board has put forward this compromise in the hopes of getting musicians back on the stage and audiences back in Orchestra Hall in time to launch a new season."

He continued, "We previously declined the mediator's 'play and talk' proposal because it would have cost the organization $2.8 million for four months with no assurance that the musicians would offer a concessionary proposal that would safeguard the Orchestra's future. At this point, a short term agreement does not allow us to mount a full concert season, and we simply cannot burden our ticket holders again with the rounds of cancellations they endured this past year.

"We ask the musicians to accept this proposal or issue one of their own. The Board remains very flexible about how the contract is structured, and we are open to musician suggestions, for example, around the length of the season, the number of players or specifics of overscale payments, all of which could be altered to change musician compensation levels. The Board is ready to meet musicians at the bargaining table immediately."

A comparison of contract economics between the revised contract proposal and the offer made by the Association last September:

Revised 2013 Proposal September 2012 Proposal

Salary Salary

$102,200 average annual salary $89,000 average annual salary

[Minimum salary = $87,400] [Minimum salary = $78,000 ]

Overscale (extra payments beyond Overscale
minimum salary)

Reduced by 25% across the board to Reductions range from 22 to 40%
eliminate varied reductions between musicians
based on individual musician contracts

Benefits Benefits

Benefit package worth more than $30,000/year Benefit package worth more than
including 7.63% of salary to a defined benefit $30,000/year including 7.63% of salary to a
pension plan defined benefit pension plan

Vacation Vacation

10 weeks paid vacation 10 weeks paid vacation

"Relief" (extra time off) provisions reinstated Musicians receive fewer relief services

Work Rule Changes Will Increase Classical Music Outreach to Communities

In the Orchestra's original September 2012 proposal, management sought a number of work rule changes. That request for changes has been significantly modified and the followingprovisions, among others, have been reinstated in the revised contract proposal:

Seniority pay
Relief services (Reinstated "relief" combined with vacation time offers most positions in the orchestra 15 to 19 paid weeks off annually)

A modified cap on the number of Sunday performances possible
Multiple scheduling provisions
Multiple touring provisions

Proposed changes that remain in the revised proposal include:

Ability to offer educational outreach work and chamber music concerts within the terms of the contract
Substitute and extra musicians to be paid at 75% of scale
Guaranteed minimum number of musicians set at 84 versus 95, achieved through attrition rather than layoffs

"Musicians should be our best advocates for the classical music art form, but in our current model we must pay the players additionally for every community outreach appearance, and these costs limit our chamber music and educational outreach concerts. We are asking for the ability to send small groups into the community for education initiatives and chamber music performances within the terms of this contract," said President and CEO Michael Henson. "This is not only an economic issue but also a fundamental shift in how our organization should relate to the community." In the revised contract, chamber music performances and education work would be offered within the parameters of the traditional work week, without requiring musicians to work additional hours or weeks per year.

Contract talks between the Minnesota Orchestral Association and its musicians, who are members of the Twin Cities Musicians' Union (Local 30-73), began on April 12, 2012. The Orchestral Association's latest proposal offers a total package averaging $135,000 per musician, including an average salary of $102,200. The proposal also includes 10 weeks of paid vacation and up to 26 weeks of paid sick leave. Musicians have not yet put forward a contract counterproposal. In December, the Orchestral Association made public its annual independent audit, conducted by CliftonLarsonAllen, which revealed an operating deficit of $6 million for Fiscal 2012. In June, a special review by the State's Legislative Auditor confirmed that the Orchestra has appropriately used all state funding.