Well… it’s déjà vu all over again. In fact, it’s so déjà vu all over again that there’s no point in trying to come up with a different cliché to describe what’s going on.
For those who had not heard, the management of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) has locked out its musicians, following a pattern of strong-arm tactics that has attempted by the leaders of several other classical music organizations all over the country.
At this juncture, it’s fair to wonder aloud why a management would attempt this same tactic. Famously, this bit of hard-ballism failed spectacularly in places like Minneapolis, Atlanta, and elsewhere. But it was more than just some tactical failure—again and again, as other voices/actors in the community really started paying attention, and began digging into the justification for the strong arm tactics, these justifications fell apart. Deeper analyses revealed that the managements’ positions were frequently built on shady finances, bad-faith negotiations, short-term thinking, and groupthink, and primarily driven by simple hostility to unions. Again and again, the realization that these various managements were being less than candid about their tactics and grand strategies led to a ferocious backlash from the community. And again and again, this community backlash led to the forced removal of the managements that tried to play hardball in the first place.
Simple self-preservation would suggest that managements would drop strong-armism as a tool in their toolkits.
Alas, this doesn’t seem to be the case.
I’ll be keeping my eye on this dispute as it unfolds—the eye of an interested outsider who has seen this play out way too many times before, and has lost all patience for this kind of nonsense.
On that note, a few comments about the self-serving message the BSO management sent out to the orchestra’s supporters. Continue reading →