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Wednesday, December 5, 2007

News: JSO admin threatens to nix health insurance if musicians don't take offer

Posted by John Stoehr on Wed, Dec 5, 2007 at 1:58 PM

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Talk about being a Scrooge.

The administration for the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra has told its musicians that they will take the terms offered in a new labor contract or face cancellation of their healthcare coverage at the end of the year.

That's according to Drew McManus over at Adaptistration. Stay tuned for more coverage.

The news comes two days after the musicians, represented by the American Federation of Musicians, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. The charge claimed that the lockout declared by the JSO's administration last month was illegal. It violated a federal law dictating that neither party in contract negotiations will strike (on the part of the union) or lock out (on the part of the manangement) for 60 days after service of notice.

From an email sent to musicians by Alan Hopper, the JSO's exe director:

As we mentioned in this letter, we cannot sustain the costs of the current agreement. Because the Association was hopeful that we could reach a timely agreement, we chose to continue your health care coverage through December 31. Now we are faced with uncertainty regarding a new agreement and must control our expenses. Accordingly, we will not continue health care coverage for Musicians after December 31 if we fail to reach an agreement by December 15.

You will have the opportunity to continue your current health care coverage with Blue Cross/Blue Shield at the COBRA rate which includes both the Association and Musician cost plus 2%.

We truly regret this decision but we must preserve the financial integrity of the JSA.

The threat amounts to a Merry Christmas and a big fuck you to the musicians from the JSO's board of directors. Yet more evidence that the board and the administration don't value the musicians or what the musicians do for the organization or the city of Jacksonville.

Topics: Concert Music

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I am sad to see Uni Bar close. We went twice and really liked it, so we returned the other night to find it closed. Ironically, both times I saw many people there, some I knew, and it had a nice neighborhood feel.

Posted by Duffy Lewis on November 12, 2007 at 11:37 AM | Report this comment
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Um, are not the musicians of the symphony the main reason for this organization existing in the first place? I mean, the public does not come from miles around and pay hard earned money to see administrators administrate. They come to hear the live music supplied by these musicians! I think the management of the JSO needs to realize that the actual musicians of the orchestra are the sole reason why they have their jobs in the first place and that they should start making sacrifices of their own, rather than placing the onus on their own cash cow. This is a disgraceful trend in the symphony orchestras of the USA that has been going on for way too long. Make it more about the music, not about the paper shuffling that goes along with it. If cuts must be made to make the organization more solvent, do it on the management side rather than increasing administrative positions and providing raises to the administration as the JSO has been for the past five years via the scaled back musicians' contract. Don't ask the talented performers of the JSO whom the audience actually pays to hear to bear the brunt of the management's own bloated excesses.

Posted by Steve Moran on December 5, 2007 at 9:45 PM | Report this comment
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Um, are not the musicians of the symphony the main reason for this organization existing in the first place? I mean, the public does not come from miles around and pay hard earned money to see administrators administrate. They come to hear the live music supplied by these musicians! I think the management of the JSO needs to realize that the actual musicians of the orchestra are the sole reason why they have their jobs in the first place and that they should start making sacrifices of their own, rather than placing the onus on their own cash cow. This is a disgraceful trend in the symphony orchestras of the USA that has been going on for way too long. Make it more about the music, not about the paper shuffling that goes along with it. If cuts must be made to make the organization more solvent, do it on the management side rather than increasing administrative positions and providing raises to the administration as the JSO has been for the past five years via the scaled back musicians' contract. Don't ask the talented performers of the JSO whom the audience actually pays to hear to bear the brunt of the management's own bloated excesses.

Posted by Steve Moran on December 5, 2007 at 9:45 PM | Report this comment
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Positively disgraceful what insurance companies and other kinds of admins are doing to the Creative Classes! And I don't even think "disgraceful" is all that strong a word...I could think of stronger, but since I represent my own status as a musician and blogger, I'll keep to my original wording. :-P If the lockout/strike is illegal, then it's illegal. A breach of contract is a breach of contract. I'm with Steve Moran up there: last time I checked, a symphony was never written with the title: "$ymphony in D(ollar$) for Arrogant Administrators and Solo Calculator."

Posted by Kat on December 7, 2007 at 6:59 PM | Report this comment

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John Stoehr
Arts Editor

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