Labor Trouble Brewing at the Met

Janos Gereben on March 11, 2014

"Contentious" is what The New York Times predicts that labor negotiations will be when union contracts with the Metropolitan Opera expire this summer:

Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, met this week with officials of Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, which represents the players in the orchestra, and proposed curbing the opera house’s costs by reducing pension and health care benefits and changing work rules, according to three people with knowledge of the proposal who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Tino Gagliardi, the president of the musicians’ union, declined to discuss the details of the meeting but said that “we’ve never received a set of proposals from the Met that represented such a devastating reduction in pay.”

The Met, which ran a $2.8 million deficit last season on a budget of $327 million, is facing a number of financial challenges. It reported a drop in attendance last season, and has become more reliant on contributions as box office income has fallen to less than a third of its revenue. In recent years it has spent more of its endowment than many institutions consider prudent: It drew 8.8 percent of its endowment in the fiscal year that ended July 31, and 8.2 percent the previous year, according to financial statements.

The endowment was valued at $253 million at the end of July.

The Wall Street Journal reported management proposals to the American Guild of Musical Artists includes a $4,000 deductible for health-insurance benefits to begin kicking in for a family. AGMA Executive Director Alan Gordon spoke about "a declaration of war by the Met against its performing artists." At the Met, the largest performing-arts organization in the country, male chorus members earn an average of $200,000 annually. The changes, says Gordon, "would decimate the livelihoods of the people who are the Met, for the sole purpose of continuing the unsustainable business model you have created."