RSO Musicians

Our neighbors in Norfolk have put together a very effective PR campaign. It has a memorable catch phrase:”Hampton Roads’ Major League Team!”. It has a very simple, two fold, message… literally; the quality of their worth to the community, and their immediate, very tangible goals. It utilizes both the old media, pamphlets, and the new media, a dedicated website.

So what, that’s what professional Orchestras do, right? Only it wasn’t the management of the VSO that masterminded this campaign; it was the musicians themselves. As preparation for an upcoming collective bargaining endeavor, the musicians conceived, developed, and executed a very successful PR campaign designed to serve their immediate needs, complement the overall VSO PR strategy and establish a permanent, public voice for the musicians.

Here’s the musician’s website.

See this Polyphonic.org article for an inside look at this initiative.

From the ROPA mailing list
from Laura Ross, ICSOM Secretary
DO NOT WORK FOR
RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL/CABLEVISION
“CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR”

Despite record profits approaching $100 million per year for this 10-week
show, management is seeking to slash the tenured orchestra musicians’
salaries by eliminating or severely limiting the overtime these musicians
earn working as many as 6 shows a day and often for 7 days a week.

Following a breakdown in negotiations with the new owners of Radio City
Music Hall on Thursday, October 6, 2005, Local 802 [New York City] was
informed that the management had hired a local contractor (the regular house
contractor is a member of Local 802.) This contractor will call music
schools and/or union or non-union musicians in New York, New Jersey or
anywhere in the US, Canada or Europe, to serve as replacement or “scab”
musicians.

Additionally, there is a strong rumor that the contractor will try to reach
out to the members of the Louisiana Philharmonic and offer this work as a
“charitable gesture”.

Members are asked to refuse this work and to notify Local 802 of any
attempts to hire within their jurisdiction.

The New Jersey Symphony musicians have ratified a contract after prolonged negotiations which continued after the previous contract expired at the end of August.

Terms of the new contract include:

• 1 year term
• 10% pay cut
• Temporarily reduce from 76 to 69 players
• Cut season from 36 to 32 weeks
• Several musician seats on the Board
• Musician representation on management committees

There are articles on The Star-Ledger and Playbill Arts.