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Troubles Mount for Met Opera; Fall Season Appears “Shaky”

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The Metropolitan Opera House is located in Manhattan’s Upper West Side on Broadway at Lincoln Square.
The Metropolitan Opera House is located in Manhattan’s Upper West Side on Broadway at Lincoln Square.
On Wednesday, July 15th, one of the 15 unions currently negotiating with the Metropolitan Opera filed with the National Labor Relations Board two charges of unfair-labor-practice against the institution. This comes at a time when drama and debates are heated as the unions’ contracts with the Met expire on July 31st.

A total of an estimated 850 chorus members, principal singers, production personnel and dancers, are represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA). The Met is being accused by the AGMA of not bargaining fairly and in good faith. They cited several of the Met’s actions to support the accusation; including their refusal to set up times and places specifically to meet with the union representatives as well as refusing to release documents that have been requested by AGMA and are required for proper negotiations.

Also later on Wednesday, the members of the union representing backstage workers, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), planned to protest in Manhattan in front of four movie theaters that broadcast Live at the Met performances. Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, started the broadcasts several years ago in an attempt to extend the opera’s audience base. All around the world the Live Met performances are shown. The union has scheduled protest in 12 other cities in the U.S.

The Met wants to adjust the union contracts in order to save the opera company between 16 to 17 percent a year. The company claims that there has been a stark decrease in ticket sales. They also claim too much of their annual operating costs go to compensating union members, stating that of its $327 million costs, two-thirds go to the unions. The changes that the Met are asking the unions to accept would affect work rules and benefits for the workers.

Gelb claimed that the Met’s deficit was $2.8 million for the fiscal year that ended July 31st, 2013. He says the losses would have been even greater if board members haven’t been asked by Gelb for donations. Gelb says he even cut his own pay in April a whopping 10 percent. With the reduction his annual base salary is still $1.4 million. As part of the agreements with the unions, Gelb promises to apply the same amount of pay cuts to him and others on the administrative staff that the union agree to.

Unions tend to disagree. They say that the salaries and compensation packages of the union members’ will suffer a great deal more by the proposed changes than those on Gelb’s administrative staff will. Earnings would decline anywhere from 25 to 38 percent for the members of the orchestra union. Many union representatives blame Gelb and his poor managerial skills for the shrinking audiences and inadequate finances; mainly Gelb’s excessive spending on new productions and feeble artistic vision.

The hostile relationship between the Met and the unions is expected by many to lead to a lockout or strike. If this happens the season starting in September could be paralyzed and devastate the opera’s finances even more. In 1980, the opening season of the Met was delayed for four months because of a lockout; this contributed to their problems, cutting revenue significantly that year.

Unions are in the streets publicizing their message, with hopes of swaying the Met to more fair settlements. IATSE’s assistant director of stagecraft, Joseph Hartnett, said in a statement, “We want opera patrons to know that after a sorry record of mismanagement, cost overruns and bloated executive pay, current management at the Met is putting the next opera season at risk. Executives are demanding that performers and backstage workers accept pay and benefit cuts that are unnecessary and won’t solve the Met’s problems.”

Last month, AGMA got charged with unfair-labor-practice against them by the Met. The company claims that the union denies negotiations from being conducted in the opera’s headquarters. The Met says it is not feasible for them to conduct the discussions and debates over the contracts in different places with each union. Multiple contracts are all expiring at the end of July; this means during the preceding week the Met must meet with all the different unions, while still carrying on with rehearsals.

Crain’s has been told by AGMA’s executive director, Alan Gordon that the union feels the Met Opera House  to be an unsympathetic environment for the union, due to the company having sole control over who can attend the meetings. AGMA has repeatedly tried to bring journalist into the negotiating sessions. One of the charges they filed on Wednesday was based on the Met’s rejection of press coverage. Noted in the complaint is that it is important for the public to be aware of the on goings since the Met is a nonprofit supported by tax-deductible donations.

The Met has agreed with AGMA to meet during the last week of July, there is currently no specific time or place scheduled. A spokesman for the Met said, “We look forward to meeting with them and hope that they will actually enter these meetings with the intention of trying to reach an agreement.”

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