COC Editorial

Last Spring, MAA announced voluntary paycuts taken by both Gary Hanson and Franz Welser-Most,  15% and 20% respectively;  along with non-voluntary cuts to staff members’ wages.    At the same time MAA began singing their “shared sacrifice” song loud and clear every chance they could get……most notably in the Concert Program week after week.    This was to set the stage for the musicians to “step up and take their turn” at the negotiating table.

They’ve been beating everyone over the head with this message for so long, that for us to demand anything more than a paycut would appear greedy to the patrons and public.

Let’s get the facts!    Their “song” leaves out some very important verses.    What they neglect to acknowledge is that we have already made significant sacrifices.    Following is a brief historical review as to why we are currently so dangerously far behind our peer orchestras and why any more “sacrifices” on our part could “sacrifice” The Cleveland Orchestra as we all know it.

1. The pay freeze in 2004-05.   This was to help MAA deal with a $7 million deficit.
2. The pay freeze was followed by 4 seasons of lower increases than our peer orchestras.
3. The switch to The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) pension plan in 2006  (effective 2009).   This was a huge sacrifice,  but MAA and the Board of Trustees were convinced that our defined benefit contribution was too great a burden on the institution and had to be discontinued.    Anyone who has been following our pension news  knows that the AFM plan has suffered considerably and our pensions have lost a significant amount of their value.
4. The 2-year freeze (2006-08) on MAA’s  contribution to the pension fund,
5. The Florida Residency Clause in 2004.   We provided flexibility in scheduling, enabling MAA to reduce costs and generate new revenue.
6. The payment to musicians for radio broadcasts cut by 50% beginning in 2004.
7. The health insurance premium paid in part by the musicians for the first time, beginning in 2004.
8. The decision not to increase seniority pay, overtime pay, travel penalties, extra services,  and per diem since 2004.
9. The failure of MAA to fill vacancies in the orchestra membership.   Currently the following positions remain unfilled to save MAA money: one section viola;  one section cello;  second harp;  three first violinists;  and one second violinist.   This provides a huge savings for MAA while increasing the workload in each of the sections affected.

Put it all together and you get a Cleveland Orchestra that is spiraling downward,  getting farther and farther behind our “peers”.

MAA has mentioned publicly that other orchestras have shared the sacrifice and that we should too.

This is our answer to them:   pick a contract……NY, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, any would do.    Some of these orchestras have made “sacrifices”, some have moved forward…..either way,  they are all significantly better than MAA’s most recent offer or even our proposed freeze.

Gary Hanson claims publicly (most notably in a recent letter sent out to patrons) that MAA’s latest offer keeps us highly competitive with our nation’s top orchestras.  He is wrong.