La Cieca has obtained a copy of the NYCO shop letter from AGMA: 

MAY 18^th 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.

….

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.