Which leads us to the musicians of the Cleveland Orchestra, who are supposed to be grown-ups.
The city of Cleveland has not fared well these past few years, which is a reality the musicians seem to have overlooked. The massive wealth the city built has in great part melted away, and no new industries have arisen to carry the city forward.
The city is depopulating. ('Can you say 'depopulate'? That means more people are moving out than moving in. The city gets smaller and poorer when that happens, boys and girls.')
The orchestra has been running $4,000,000 deficits annually for years. ('Can you say 'deficit'? That means more money is being spent than is being taken in, boys and girls.')
The management has laid off staff and taken pay cuts, and asked the musicians to take a 5% cut in salary this year, with a return to par next year, and a modest raise in two years.
The
The New York Times tells the tale:
The Cleveland players’ minimum salary stood at $115,000, seventh in the nation, but most earn more through additional payments; principal players can earn two or three times that amount.
As the musicians see it, losing further ground will make it tougher to attract the absolute best players, and to keep them, threatening the orchestra’s greatness. “Continuity and stability have been the backbone of this orchestra,” said Michael Sachs, the principal trumpeter.
Before the settlement, Mr. Hanson, the executive director, dismissed these arguments. “The proposal that we’re making is fair and reasonable and will not cause any artistic impact such as they’re predicting,” he said. Though the orchestra has been toward the bottom of the elite orchestra pay scale for a decade, he added, virtually no member has defected.
Defected?!!! Every opening announced opens the floodgate of stellar one-page resumes, hundreds of them. The management could start over, advertise the positions starting at 75k and staff the equivalent of two orchestras, with never a worry about quality of employee.
Remember when the Major League Baseball players went out on strike in 1994, and the World Series was cancelled? What happened next season? The fans stayed away in droves, and television ratings sank.
Did it occur to the children that no one in the Land of Reality sympathizes with people who make high incomes, doing really pleasant work, who decide to go on strike? Especially in industries that exist to entertain the rest of society?
The Cleveland Orchestra departs for Miami tomorrow for their winter concert season there. Here's hoping the good people of Miami stay home and donate their ticket money to people with real problems, like the injured and starving of Haiti.
Audiences and donors can strike, as well.
2 comments:
People have to re-think what to expect in the form of salary. I very much suspect that one of the next "bubbles" to go is the "wage bubble" for lack of a better term. Trees need to grow and then die so the next generation of trees can come up behind them.
Jeff
Well-spoken, Jeff. And, to be clear, I'm not in favor of highly-trained folks like Cleveland Orchestra musicians being paid low wages, just because they are musicians. Quite the contrary, they should earn all the market can bear, just like every other profession.
But, reason will sooner or later have to prevail.
The bigger question in my mind: Given who they are, and what they do, do these folks add commensurate value to the culture around them to justify the salaries? That, in the end, will inexorably influence the resources that will flow in their direction.
All the orchestras are in for 'interesting times' for the next decade. The musicians will need every friend they can muster. Behavior like this does not inspire good-will or confidence from the community.
Post a Comment