I'm told that the pro-unionizing group won the vote in Madison last night. Good call, everyone. The next step (the first contract) might actually be easier than in most newly-unionized workplaces, as I'm told that both musicians and management have had a long history of behaving as if there kinda was a CBA in place. Let's hope that the inevitable hard feelings amongst management and those musicians on the losing side (and any triumphalism amongst those who voted for unionization) will fade and productive business can be done.
When they do get down to negotiations, they might want to spend some time on the temperature clause.
The margin was neither a landslide nor a photo-finish, which I think is good. We have had a history of being close to evenly divided on issues, but we're also used to arguing things out, coming up with something that works and moving on.
We behave as though there were a CBA in place because there is one in place. I don't think it will take much to bring it from "kinda" to "real" in the AFM's perception. More importantly, there is a culture of respect here. Management, players, guest artists and the community all know it, and we're all having too much fun to let it go any other way.
Not to worry too much about temperature. Management is on the same page on that issue. The organ belongs to the orchestra, and the curator has specified a temp range narrower than the one in our CBA. Rumor is he got more assertive about it this year; a couple of times I had to remove my t-shirt at intermission. On the other hand, we have noticed a shortage of soap dispensers in the bathrooms.
Posted by: MSNStecher | February 03, 2009 at 02:44 PM