Metropolitan Opera to Cut 22 Nonunion Positions

According to The New York Times, the Metropolitan Opera announced today it will cut 22 of its 254 non-union, administrative positions. The layoffs will affect areas across the staff, including jobs in the artistic, financial, marketing, development and technical departments.

"The reductions are part of an ongoing effort to make the 31-year-old organization leaner fiscally, but without diminishing the production values of its presentations onstage," the Met said in a statement.

The layoffs are a result of the organization's agreement last month to match its major unions' pay cuts.

The Times writes that the Met's board of directors agreed to attempt to double the company's endowment over the next five years, but only if the Met "took steps to curb expenses." Thus, when contract talks started this summer, the Met requested major cuts from the unions, which launched an argument that almost halted the 2014-15 season.

In the end, the unions took pay cuts, but part of the final agreement was an "equality of sacrifice" provision, "calling on the Met to trim an equal amount from its nonunion workers."

So, these layoffs and pay cuts, along with several other steps to trim the budget, are expected to save the Met around $90 million over the next four years.

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