The Lockout is Over, and the Rebuilding Begins

Reckless O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me,

Sail forth—steer for the deep waters only,
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

O my brave soul!
O farther farther sail!
O daring joy, but safe! are they not all the seas of God?
O farther, farther, farther sail!

          – Walt Whitman

 

It appears that the ugly lockout of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is over, and the ASO musicians have reached a new four-year agreement with their parent organization, the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC). The new contract retains a fixed complement of 88 and provides small pay increases for the musicians. It also gives the WAC time to improve marketing and fundraising.

A Response to Virginia Hepner

While I was in London, I missed a curious tidbit from the labor dispute between the musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), and the management of the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) who have locked them out.

“Mediation”

A few short weeks ago there was a new development in the ongoing labor dispute between the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) and the locked out musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO). Following a few false starts, both sides agreed to meet with federal mediator Allison Beck to try and find a resolution.

Romanstein Out, Eyes Turn to the WAC

Well.  Yesterday, Stanley Romanstein resigned as President and CEO from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO). I did not see that coming. But given the fact that the ASO labor dispute has almost exactly paralleled that of the Minnesota Orchestra, albeit under an astonishingly compressed time frame… perhaps I should have.

Inaccurate and Inept: The ASO’s Mediation Announcement

Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost
my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of
myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation,
Iago, my reputation!

– Othello, Act II, Scene 3, line 24

 

Those who have been reading my posts here know I have had a fairly low opinion of how the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) management has been “managing” the labor dispute with its musicians. And that several times I’ve considered that management has gone as low as they could go (here and here, for example).

Sadly, management keeps on surprising me.

Empty Spin

Those of us who followed the Minnesota Orchestra dispute closely are getting clobbered with a sense of déjà vu. It seems that the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), under the direction of its parent company the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC), is engaged in precisely the same actions that we saw here in Minneapolis.

Case in point, it appears that the ASO has decided to negotiate with its locked out musicians via the press. Or more specifically, via a graphic that has been helpfully posted on social media.

Preemptively Cancelling Concerts

Well… there it is. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) has just cancelled its concerts running through November.

A Disgusting New Low

You know, over the course of the Minnesota Orchestra and Metropolitan Opera labor disputes, I’ve seen a lot of ugly things. Managements in both the disputes resorted to hard-ball tactics and inflammatory rhetoric as part of a deliberate ploy to demonize the musicians and other workers. Again and again, these arts “leaders” denigrated the very art forms that their respective organizations were built to celebrate.  Sadly, such things are often par for the course in a labor dispute, especially when the stakes are high.

But nothing could prepare me for the low blow the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra inflicted today.  They went after their youngest supporters.

Mismanagement at Atlanta Goes Right to the Top

Well. As I look out at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) lockout, I can only shake my head in wonder at how it has degenerated into a farce in just a few days. If people’s lives weren’t being horribly impacted, you might wonder if the whole thing wasn’t lifted right from Comedy Central. It’s like an episode of The Office, only set within a non-profit.

A Remarkable Letter in Atlanta

For some time now, I’ve been keeping a watchful eye on the various ebbs and flows of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra labor dispute.

And boy did it just get interesting.