I was just sent this letter by our local AFM Secretary. It was passed on from Bruce Ridge, ICSOM Chairman.


TO: the musicians of ICSOM, ROPA, and OCSM
FROM: Bruce Ridge, ICSOM Chairman
SUBJECT: URGENT- DO NOT ACCEPT WORK FROM THE LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA, INC.

Dear friends and colleagues,

SPREAD THE WORD:

As we all know, the musicians of the Louisville Orchestra have been engaged
in a lengthy negotiation with their management. They have repeatedly been
threatened by their board with being replaced by other musicians. And now,
after a final ultimatum, the Louisville Orchestra, Inc. has begun recruiting
replacement musicians.

DO NOT ACCEPT WORK FROM THE LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA, INC.

Both the Louisville Orchestra, Inc. and the Kentucky Opera have been placed
on the American Federation of Musicians' (AFM) International Unfair List,
and accepting work from these two groups could generate fines and penalties.

But it is not just the Unfair List that should deter anyone from accepting
this work--the fact is that it would simply be wrong to do so.

Any musician accepting such work would not be serving the cause of art in
America, or serving their career and family. Musicians accepting work as
replacements would be taking food out of the mouths of fellow musicians, as
well as depriving them and their children of health insurance.

The members of ICSOM, ROPA, and OCSM comprise a great number of orchestral
musicians in North America, and we have thousands of students. Please
educate your students, and the leaders at your music schools, of the
importance of this effort. If the egregious and despicable actions of
Louisville Orchestra CEO Rob Birman, and Board Chair Chuck Maisch were to
succeed, then no orchestra in North America would be safe from such attacks.
Any musician accepting such work would be building a career on quick sand.

Please post this message in your studios, and please send it to your
students everywhere, as well as the colleagues in your orchestra who might
not be subscribed to the ICSOM, ROPA, or OCSM news lists. Post it backstage
at work. Post it on your Facebook pages. Spread the message everywhere that
the musicians of ICSOM, ROPA, and OCSM will always stand together

The symphonic musicians of North America perform as a united network of
friends. It is crucial that we stand together on this issue, not only for
the musicians of Louisville, but for the future of musicians everywhere.

In solidarity,

Bruce Ridge
ICSOM Chairman

musicians of the LO file a labor complaint.

http://www.courier-journal.com...Louisville-Orchestra

quote:

the Louisville Orchestra, Inc. has begun recruiting
replacement musicians.

Does anybody know if this is actually true? I'm assuming that they are going to fold the organization. As stubborn as their management appears, they surely know that nobody is going to apply other than amateurs.

It's true. And it's not at all clear that those in charge of the LO are aware that they'll wind up with a community orchestra by going down this path. Viewing this situation from afar, but with friends in the orchestra, it's seemed to me for a while now that the management in Louisville has ceased trying to find a real solution, and shifted it's focus to "punishing" the musicians for daring to oppose their insane bankruptcy and downsizing plan. It's a very sad situation.

quote:

Originally posted by Sam Bergman:
It's true.

But how are they going about it, that's what I'm asking. Are they sending out flyers? If so, they assumedly are listing salaries, positions open, length of season, on and on. I doubt they are hanging a "Help wanted" sign in the window. AFAIK, no US orchestra has ever done anything remotely close to this.

quote:

It's a very sad situation.

Many of the younger members here might not be aware of the importance of this orchestra's recordings in the past. Louisville was a huge deal in the modern music world. Sidney Harth was the concertmaster at one point, and lots of prominent musicians have played with that orchestra.

They are, from what I'm told, sending out flyers to music schools and other locations advertising that every position in the orchestra is available. The flyer I saw also acknowledges a) that these jobs are meant to replace the current orchestra, b) that the LO is on the AFM's "unfair" list, and c) that the LO neither requires nor forbids union membership for prospective employees.

I also don't know of any other orchestra that has gone this far, but I suppose it's possible that one has at some point. I believe the latest in this situation is that the LO players have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.

Here's the flyer:

http://www.louisvilleorchestra...Call-Flyer-Email.pdf

^ "Abusive ex-boyfriend seeks new girlfriend for fun & excitement"

quote:

Originally posted by BBodden:
^ "Abusive ex-boyfriend seeks new girlfriend for fun & excitement"

"Baby, this time will be different".

still negotiating

So, the flyer is yet more deceit if this article is correct. The flyer is advertising jobs that may not exist. That's quite an organization they have.

I hate to be a pessimist, but I would expect managerial actions like this to become more common as time goes on in our industry, as well as in many other industries.

quote:

Originally posted by AndyBassTbn:
I hate to be a pessimist, but I would expect managerial actions like this to become more common as time goes on in our industry, as well as in many other industries.

Indeed. This is why our entire industry needs to be supportive of the players in LO. It's a test case, I'm sure a lot more similar scenarios are on their way.

I love the "equal opportunity employer" at the bottom of the ad. Oh really, it is? Also, I thought what the musicians were offered initially was lower than what is listed here for new musicians.

I really hope other management groups don't follow suit. This is getting ridiculous.

They'd never try this with IATSE. It wouldn't work, a stagehand would never undercut another stagehand. (not to mention non-union stageworks seem to fall down, catch fire or blow up) However, musicians are often way too eager to undercut each other.

I hope we can change our ways otherwise this will become the 'new normal'.

I don't personally know about stagehands, but I would agree their demeanor is more "cooperative" than the general musician. However, to say that musicians are "eager to undercut each other" I do not think is true. The fact is that there are an incredible amount of degreed performance majors out there looking for jobs -- many more than there are jobs available (or as the case is lately, than there are jobs actually hiring). The nature of that simple fact is that some people will go out of the presumed mainstream of the union route in order to get work. I think this is probably what management is hedging bets on with their flyer. And in the current economy, no one knows what might actually work.

As far as a new normal, as long as there are too many qualified people and not enough jobs, a new normal of some sort will emerge. This is true across all industries.

Thank you, FluteFlute, for what I believe is an excellent summary of what's at stake in the Louisville situation.

quote:

Originally posted by FluteFlute:
I think this is probably what management is hedging bets on with their flyer. And in the current economy, no one knows what might actually work.

For starters, there will be no conductors or soloists of note willing to commit career suicide by crossing a picket line.

quote:

The nature of that simple fact is that some people will go out of the presumed mainstream of the union route in order to get work.

There's a huge difference between "non-union" and crossing a picket line. If an orchestra folds and re-invents itself as a non-union orchestra, that's a completely different scenario than the one at present. Every freelancer has played a ton of non-union gigs, it's not the issue. The issue at hand is crossing a picket line. It might be in the near future that a bunch of top-flight non-union orchs pop up. Again, that's a different issue. Crossing a picket line is serious stuff.