mayday!
La Cieca has obtained a copy of the NYCO shop letter from AGMA:Â
MAY 18th at 6PM
SAVE THE DATE – TO SAVE YOUR JOB
AGMA represented artists at New York City Opera will have to make some basic decisions that, for all intents and purposes, may determine whether or not you will continue to work for NYCO and, ultimately, whether or not NYCO can survive.
We have scheduled a meeting of the entire AGMA shop for May 18th at 6 PM. The participants at that meeting will determine whether we should enter into early negotiations with NYCO or, alternatively, whether we should pursue litigation to resist NYCO’s attempt to re-open the contract.
If you determine that we should negotiate, NYCO would agree to wait to conclude an agreement with us until after it concludes its negotiations with Local 802, provided that we, in turn, agree to begin negotiations in early June and finish within 15 days following the conclusion of the 802 agreement. Our negotiations with NYCO could lead to a mutually satisfactory contract or to an impasse. If, by the 45th day following the conclusion of the Local 802 negotiations we had not reached an agreement, the contract would terminate. At that point, NYCO could impose its last and final offer to us, and we could decide to strike.
It is highly unlikely that NYCO could survive a strike by AGMA. Although we all share the hope that we will be able to find a way in which to assist NYCO’s resurrection, members will ultimately have to determine whether to tolerate working under a terrible contract or force NYCO to choose between maintaining our current guarantees or go out of business.
Although AGMA will do everything possible to assure that our members do not suffer because of decades of mismanagement, given the changes that George Steel wants to make in our contract, members are advised that the possibility of a strike against NYCO is likely.
In his first year, with only five operas, these are Steel’s plans: Eliminate the 26 week guarantee of work for the chorus; reduce the size of the chorus; eliminate the continuity of employment and, instead, pay choristers only when they are working; reduce medical coverage and eliminate paid family coverage, eliminate weekly soloists; eliminate Associate Chorus recall rights; eliminate production staff employment guarantees, reduce the number of production staff members and reduce the work available to whichever production staff members remain.
As you all know, the ultimate question for any union and its members is whether to work under an employer-imposed contract that eliminates previously hard-won guarantees, protections and financial and professional rewards or, instead, to engage in a job action that has the likelihood of closing down the employer forever. As we’ve said, it is unlikely that NYCO can survive an AGMA strike and the attendant negative publicity that will impact projected ticket sales.
For those of you who think of your work at NYCO as a full time job, George Steel has said that, if he has his way, employment at NYCO would no longer be sufficient to constitute full time work.
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This meeting is your opportunity to help determine the future of work at NYCO and the continued existence of NYCO itself. . If you don’t attend, don’t complain about the result.
NYCO as we knew it is dead. There may or may not be a new NYCO in New York in the future, although in what guise I doubt anyone could guess now.
I just hope that other groups don’t go on strike too in a show of solidarity.
Are the arts getting an stimulus money from Obama? NYCO sure could use some funds right now.
Can an AGMA member or someone with AGMA knowledge please answer the following questions about this meeting:
1) Who is eligible to attend and vote? All AGMA members, just those in a current contract at NYCO?
2) Is there a way to vote by proxy if you can’t attend?
I don’t understand the way the membership is constructed or how things operate. Thank you.
Chaka#12
As part of the Stimulus Bill, 35 Million Dollars was allocated to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)–that won’t go very far, though…and even that piddling sum was fought over tooth and nail…..
I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s what Steele “wants”- it’s about what’s viable. Suing for the current contract will shut down NYCO just like a strike will.
Unfortunately, we’re too busy giving billions to rich companies to give anything to the arts- the actual soul of the country. (well, that was Bush’s policy at least- we’ll see if Obama gets back on track).
Gottfried: That’s remarkable. From my experience, most musicians unions don’t really care about how much their employer can afford to pay them.
The emotional and finger-pointing aspects of this dispute aside, how exactly can City Opera afford AGMA’s demands? In all seriousness, if Gordon’s so adamant that Steel preserve the status quo, then what suggestions does he offer as to how to fund them?
If he has none, is unwilling to budge, and backs NYCO into a corner with no other options (it’s simple math — they either can find enough $$$ for these contracts or they can’t, and I don’t claim to know either way), then isn’t all of this (even all the heated posting on this very website) kind of pointless? This whole situation is so depressing.
I’ve of two minds: It isn’t the fault of the orchestra and chorus that Susan Baker and Mortier fucked everything up. They’re only the heart and soul of any opera company, without whom it wouldn’t exist. On the other hand, part-time work is better than none. Now is, for better or worse, the time for compromise. If SAG can do, so can AGMA.
“Very interesting. Hopefully everyone understands that all of this is just posturing on the part of both AGMA and NYCO”
This goes well beyond posturing. These current circumstances are beyond extraordinary, especially for an opera company with a budget in the eight figures. These are not ordinary negotiations, not by any stretch of the imagination.
The letter is quite to the point and the statement is very clear, and this needs to be stressed: If AGMA strikes, you will quite literally witness the end of the company. It will be over.
“Fascinating that after reading what Steele supposedly wants (and there is no reason Gordon would lie to his own membership in an informational email) – the complete decimation of the existing contract – that posters here still feel it’s the Union that wants to destroy NYCO.”
It is nothing less than a total evisceration of the company and the way the company has worked for sixty years. There are a lot of things that need to change, and I would say that some of the things listed are things that need a shake up, but to completely eliminate them?
Based on what he wants, there would basically be no company, just some occasional visiting soloists. Amazing.