Klarinet Archive - Posting 000593.txt from 1999/09

From: Ken Wolman <Ken.Wolman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Phila Orch salaries
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 08:47:28 -0400

michael@-----.uk wrote:
>=20
> Compare this with the deal given to the members of the Philharmonia
> Orchestra in London.
>=20
> 600 services per year
> No holiday pay
> No pension
> 7% cut in touring rates
> No pay increase for 10 years
> No employees rights
> 3-4 months foreign touring per year
>=20
> Rank and file salary about =A328 000
> Principal salary about =A3 35 000
>=20
> The US doesn't have much to complain about does it? :>)

I suppose not, and the situation described here is unbelievable. The
other word that comes to mind is "Dickensian" or a more sanitized
version of labor conditions in a coal mine as Zola described them in
"Germinal." Was this so-called deal cut to settle a strike or is it
more likely to start one? If the latter, such a reaction would make
perfect sense.

A couple of clarifications. First, do the musicians earn any extra fee
for recording work or is this part of the "600 services" clause?=20
Second, what specifically is an "employee right"? I am picturing things
like a conductor terminating a musician for reasons having nothing to do
with musicianship, just because of a personality conflict, because the
conductor has someone he wants to hire...well, almost anything can cover
the situation. I take it, then, that there is no mechanism to appeal an
arbitrary dismissal or anything else that might fall under the general
header of "employee rights."

And if the British tax structure remains what I gather it has been for
years now, the ladies and gentlemen of the Phiharmonia sound like
they're getting monumentally screwed over.

Are the labor policies of other British orchestras this wretched that
the Philharmonia management thinks they can get away with this? What
about orchestras on the Continent?

Ken
--=20
Ken Wolman dbtrader Deutsche Bank, N.A.
1251 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10019 212-469-6494
Teach someone to fish and you have helped them survive another day.
Teach them to surf the Net and they won't bother you for weeks.

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