Met Opera Management Threatens Lock Out If No Deal Is Reached On Thursday
Tessa Stuart
It's deadline day for the Metropolitan Opera. The musicians' contract with the opera company is scheduled to run out at midnight on Thursday, and general manager Peter Gelb has threatened to suspend pay or benefits if a contract is not reached in time.
"It would be prudent for all Met employees to anticipate and prepare for the absence of Met income in the fall and winter of 2014, and perhaps even longer," Gelb warned employees in a letter distributed at the start of the year.
Negotiations, in progress for months, have faltered in the weeks leading up to Thursday's deadline, as the union has fired off press releases alternately blasting Gelb's "failed management and lack of artistic vision" and suggesting alternatives to cutting musician salaries, options they say could save the company as much as $37.7 million dollars. (Proposals included blacking out The Met Live in HD showings in the Northeast corridor, which the union estimated could recoup as much as $2,900,000 in lost box office revenue.)
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2014/07/unionized_met_opera_workers_will_be_locked_out_if_no_deal_is_reached_thursday.php