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Chicago Symphony Orchestra members on strike
CHICAGO, March 11, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Members of the renowned Chicago
Symphony Orchestra began striking Monday after 11 months of pay talks failed
to reach an agreement.
The musicians say the company is asking them to reduce overall salary and
benefits despite increasing revenue from sales and donations.
“Management is trying to reduce our basic benefit package and end our
guaranteed retirement benefits which will harm members and present a danger
to the future of the orchestra itself,” said Steve Lester, a bassist who
leads the musicians’ negotiating team, citing the orchestra’s multi-million
dollar endowment.
Daily picket lines were planned to stretch along Chicago’s Orchestra Hall
until a deal was reached.
The orchestra association said it was disappointed in the strike decision,
particularly amid an ongoing season.
Helen Zell, head of the CSO Board of Trustees, said no concert
cancellations were planned. The next performance was scheduled for Tuesday.
The board called the musicians’ labor requirements “unreasonable and
detrimental to a sustainable future for the CSO.”
But the orchestra’s music director Riccardo Muti has voiced support for
the striking members, saying in a letter to the board that “I understand
their needs and how they should be treated, and the fact that they are among
the best musicians in the world.”
“I hope that the board will remember that theirs is not a job but a
mission, and that tranquility and serenity will be given for the artists to
do their work,” he said.
The strike follows a similar action at Chicago’s Lyric Opera —
represented by the same union as the symphony members — in October last
year, when members of the premier arts institution walked out over cost-
cutting efforts they said would reduce quality on stage.
BSS/AFP/RY/1932 hrs