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The 1996 Strike: Historical Documents 9/20/96
First Press Release- ATLANTA: The musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra are on strike as of Friday, September 20. However, as a gesture of goodwill to their patrons, the musicians will perform the Friday and Saturday night concerts (9/20 and 9/21). At the meeting with the Players' Committee on Friday, September 20, management insisted on the ability to downsize the orchestra unless the musicians agree to a one-year salary freeze with a wage reopener and no guarantees. In addition, management summarily rejected without discussion the musicians' substantially reduced economic proposal of 5% in each of the three years of the contract. _______________________________________ At the concert, informational bulletins were passed out by all musicians to patrons along with the following flyers: To our patrons, WE THE MUSICIANS
OF THE ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ARE ON STRIKE. However, as a gesture
of goodwill to you, we are performing the concerts tonight and tomorrow
night. The committee received a unanimous vote of confidence with the orchestra, who wore blue ribbons in a show of solidarity. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has run numerous articles on the strike. The following are a compilation of headlines, with search information. We are not allowed to reprint the articles for you here. To order the complete articles, set your browser to: www.ajc.com , or search the archives through Access Atlanta/Prodigy. All articles below copyright 1996. DONOR CHALLENGE MET: ASO IS DEFICIT-FREE Atlanta Constitution (AC) - Friday, August 16, 1996 By: Derrick Henry STAFF WRITER Section: FEATURES Page: F/1 Word Count: 225 TEXT: The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra said Thursday that it has met its $5 million challenge grant, less than a month before deadline. EDITORIALS
- A DOWNBEAT START TO ASO SEASON Atlanta Constitution (AC) - Wednesday,
August 21, 1996 TEXT: Loyal fans of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra are holding their collective breath in anticipation of a new season. Their anxiety has little to do with the dazzling music on the ASO's 1996-97 calendar, which starts Sept. 6. The real suspense lies in whether the season will be postponed by a labor dispute. ASO SUPPORTERS
MAKE A PUBLIC PLEA FOR HARMONY Atlanta Constitution & JOURNAL (AC
& JOURNAL) - Friday, August 23, 1996 TEXT: The Community Supporters of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (CSASO) want their message to be heard - even if it lightens their pocketbooks. According
to Betty Nolting, CSASO secretary, 13 members of the citizens' group contributed
$15,296.18 to take out a full-page advertisement in the Aug. 22 editions
of The Atlanta Journal- Constitution. AD PROMPTS
SYMPHONY CHIEF TO CANCEL SUPPORTERS' MEETING Atlanta Journal-CONSTITUTION
(AJ-CONSTITUTION) - Saturday, August 24, 1996 TEXT: John Glover, chairman of the board of directors of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, has canceled a meeting scheduled for Monday night at the Woodruff Arts Center between members of the boards of the ASO and Community Supporters of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The meeting
had been called in a letter dated Aug. 16 and signed by ASO president
Allison Vulgamore and CSASO chair Lori Evers, stating "we are working
together to answer the questions raised by the Supporters." 08762068 ASO `KEEPS MUSIC GOING' FOR OPENER Atlanta Constitution & JOURNAL (AC & JOURNAL) - Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TEXT: The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will perform its season opener Thursday night, but its Friday and Saturday night performances are still in question. "We had a long meeting of the full orchestra and were seriously considering a strike on Thursday. But in the interest of keeping the music going, we have decided to try again," ASO Players Association president Doug Sommer said late Tuesday. 08769074 ASO MUSICIANS, MANAGERS MUST BUILD FOR THE FUTURE Atlanta Journal (AJ) - Wednesday, September 25, 1996 Section: EDITORIAL Page: A14 Word Count: 453 TEXT: It was a pop singer who made famous the mournful lament for "the day the music died," but all who love the art of the orchestra are sadder today, with Symphony Hall fallen silent as a tomb. We hope that the strike by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's musicians, and the cancellation of concerts by the management, are only symptoms of a transient malady and not the onset of a permanent and debilitating illness. And it is, we believe, the long-term prognosis that is most vital here. The specific issues on the bargaining table ---musicians' salaries, pensions and so forth ---are of course important to the players and orchestra officials, but they must be resolved in the context of a plan for the preservation, growth and further improvement of the ASO. A lot has happened since management, faced with a string of deficits, announced plans to cut six members from the ensemble earlier this year. An anonymous donor rushed to the rescue with a challenge grant that was met by other givers; the accumulated deficit was erased and the six musicians' seats were saved. STRIKE CANCELS SEPTEMBER PERFORMANCES BY ATLANTA SYMPHONY ATLANTA (AP) -- Remaining September performances by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra were cancelled Saturday, a day after the orchestra's musicians went on strike. The symphony's
scheduled concerts for Sept.26-29 will not be rescheduled, according to
spokeswoman Elaine Powell Cook. Ticketholders will be notified by the
ASO about their options for unused tickets, she said. 08763026 THE ASO: BOTH SIDES OF DISCORD Atlanta Constitution & JOURNAL (AC & JOURNAL) - Thursday, September 19, 1996 By: Bette Harrison STAFF WRITER TEXT: As the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra prepares to open its season tonight, members of the musicians' negotiating team will head back to the bargaining table with management Friday, hoping to avert a strike that could cancel Friday and Saturday concerts, and even the rest of the season. Since both sides have disputed the facts of the other's demands, we provide an update on the positions of the two sides: ORCHESTRA SIZE - Musicians want: To contractually maintain the current number of ASO musicians at 95. -Management wants: To maintain 95 players "as long as financial resources allow." - Note: Earlier this year, six nontenured musicians were scheduled to be fired, strictly on financial grounds, but were retained when fund- raising increased dramatically. 08764047
LAWSUIT AIMS TO PREVENT ASOL'S ANNUAL MEETING Atlanta Constitution &
JOURNAL (AC & JOURNAL) - Friday, September 20, 1996 TEXT: Hours
before the Atlanta Symphony opened its new season Thursday, the Community
Supporters of The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (CSASO) filed suit to prevent
the ASO League (ASOL) from holding its annual meeting next Wednesday.
The ASO League is comprised of patrons who have donated a minimum of $200
to the symphony's coffers. CSASO's lawsuit, filed Wednesday afternoon
in Fulton County Superior Court - and brought against the Woodruff Memorial
Arts Center Inc., the ASOL, ASO board chairman John T. Glover, and ASO
president Allison Vulgamore - alleges the ASOL board violated five basic
provisions of its bylaws, including scheduling its annual meeting without
properly notifying ASOL members. 08769074
ASO MUSICIANS, MANAGERS MUST BUILD FOR THE FUTURE Atlanta TEXT: IT WAS A POP singer who made famous the mournful lament for "the day the music died," but all who love the art of the orchestra are sadder today, with Symphony Hall fallen silent as a tomb. We hope that the strike by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's musicians, and the cancellation of concerts by the management, are only symptoms of a transient malady and not the onset of a permanent and debilitating illness. And it is, we believe, the long-term prognosis that is most vital here. The specific issues on the bargaining table ---musicians' salaries, pensions and so forth ---are of course important to the players and orchestra officials, but they must be resolved in the context of a plan for the preservation, growth and further improvement of the ASO 08770036
SYMPHONY ON STRIKE ASO BOARD MEMBERS INDUCTED AMID PROTESTS TEXT: Despite shouts of "No! No! No!" and boisterous clapping from Atlanta Symphony Orchestra supporters, seven new members of the ASO board of directors were inducted Wednesday afternoon at the Woodruff Arts Center's Rich Auditorium. In a scene that echoed recent behind-the-scenes squabbling, the cacophony was loud enough to drown out outgoing ASO board chairman John Glover as he read the new members' names. (Following this meeting was an ASO board meeting to induct new chairman Alan Gayer.) The people
making all the noise were more than 50 of the striking ASO musicians and
more than 100 Community Supporters of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (CSASO)
who had paid the minimum of $200 to join the ASO League and thus attend
and vote at the meeting. 08798099 STRIKING MUSICIANS SAY NO TO ASO BOARD'S `FINAL' CONTRACT OFFER Atlanta
Constitution & JOURNAL (AC & JOURNAL) - Thursday, TEXT: Striking
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra musicians Wednesday rejected a "final"
contract proposal by ASO management, a proposal for which the ASO board
"moved away from very strongly held points" in hopes of reaching
a settlement, said ASO president Allison Vulgamore. 08825056 ASO PLAYERS, MANAGEMENT TO MEET IN HOPES OF RESOLVING 2-MONTH STRIKE Atlanta
Constitution & JOURNAL (AC & JOURNAL) - Wednesday, November 20,
1996 TEXT: Federal mediator Ansel B. Garrett confirmed Monday that management and musicians for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra have agreed to meet for talks within the next week, possibly as early as Saturday. "This is a critical meeting in my view," said Garrett, who stated he hoped a compromise could be reached to salvage the orchestra's Christmas concerts, which begin Dec. 5-7 with "Gospel Christmas" and also include perennial favorite "Christmas With Robert Shaw" (Dec. 11-14) and complete performances of Handel's "Messiah" conducted by Shaw (Dec. 19-21). Douglas Sommer, president of the ASO Players' Association, expressed similar aspirations. "It's our hope the parties can come together and find a path toward resolution that can save the holiday season." New ASO board member Heide Rice, a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, also expressed the wish for a quick resolution to the strike, which began Sept. 20. "I sincerely hope and pray that a creative solution can be found to this artistic disaster; it's heartbreaking," said the Jasper, Ala.-based anesthesiologist, who's been commuting to Atlanta for the past eight years to attend ASO concerts. Monday, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners sent a letter to Sommer, ASO board chairman Alan Gayer and ASO president Allison Vulgamore conveying "sincere concern over the current impasse" and offering "to assist in the dialogue in order to reach resolution." Over the weekend, the orchestra mailed some 82,000 copies of a four- page "information update" to ticket buyers, donors, volunteers and board members explaining, among other things, why the management's Oct. 23 proposal was its "final offer" to striking musicians, and "our best solution for the financial challenges we face." ASO public relations director Laura Auclair could not provide the cost of the massive first- class mailing. She said the money "did not come from the marketing budget," but from a fund designed for communicating during the strike." From the Atlanta Weekly, Creative Loafing, Nov. 20, 1996:Center StageSymphony strike spotlights Woodruff Arts Center finances By Wendy
Malloy- Today, as they have every day since Sept. 20, Atlanta Symphony
Orchestra musicians will walk a picket line in the shadow of the Woodruff
Arts Center, the institution that houses and governs the symphony, the
High Museum of Art, the Alliance Theatre Company and the Atlanta College
of Art. This season's strike was called by the ASO Players Association
for some of the same reasons that prompted a 1983 walkout, which lasted
six weeks. But this time, the building behind the musicians is quite different.
A pre-Olympics, multimillion- dollar renovation transformed the center
into a shining Midtown star that was, literally, the center of the Olympic
Arts Festival: The High's "Rings" exhibition, the Alliance's
theatrical productions and the ASO's performances drew record numbers
of international visitors, all undoubtedly as impressed as the hometown
crowd with the richly revamped building.The renovation, however, casts
a spotlight on the Woodruff Arts Center's financial relationship to the
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra -- particularly against the backdrop of a strike
in which symphony managers are pleading poor.In the same month that symphony
management demanded its next musicians' contract include pay freezes,
the center, its umbrella organization, borrowed $8 million, using tax-exempt
bonds, partly to pay for cost overruns in its renovation project. In negotiations
over that contract, symphony managers have cited figures that downplay
the center's substantial contribution to the symphony's operating budget.
Renovation funding: Laurie Kirshbaum,
WAC vice president of communications, says using the term "internal
sources" in the overview is accurate because it refers to the method
the WAC is using to repay the authority for the bonds. She says that the
board of directors in the 1980s established a fund for new properties,
equipment, and bricks and mortar. This "plant fund" earns the
income that will pay off the bonds over 20 years.Merz acknowledges that
it's incorrect to call the tax-exempt bonds private funding, but also
stresses that no public money is involved. "The bonds are backed
by the credit of the Woodruff Arts Center," he says, "and are
made marketable by a letter of credit to the development authority from
SunTrust Bank. The bank is responsible ultimately -- if I default on the
payments, the bank pays." Bankoff says the key word is "benefit." It is not accurate, he says, to say the funds are available for the ASO; it is accurate to say that in the year indicated by the document, the ASO had the benefit of those funds. "We
don't control the Woodruff endowment," says Bankoff, "but we
do get a contribution." Merz concurs: "The WAC board of trustees
has the discretion to do what they want to in terms of using the resources
available among our divisions. For example, we could change the formula,
we could add another division, we could distribute differently."
A change in the formula is precisely what the players association wants.
Musicians say increasing the income the symphony assumes it can get from
its endowment by half a percentage point would partially fund their contract
proposal. But ASO management, acting on behalf of the board of directors,
has stressed fiscal conservatism as its rationale for the "final
offer" presented to the musicians: a 4 percent salary increase over
three years which would, according to management, need to be funded by
an additional $10 million in endowment. To fund the musicians' proposal
for a 14 percent salary increase over four years, according to |
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