City Opera Lockout Leaves Upcoming Season Questionable

City Opera Lockout Leaves Upcoming Season Questionable By Frank Nestor January 9, 2012 NY City Opera declared a lockout for today's opening rehearsal of the season after contact negotiations with its unions deteriorated over the weekend. The order leaves the fate of City Opera's first production of the season, "La Traviata," and its upcoming truncated season, uncertain. Over the last three weeks, a federal mediator has been working with City Opera's management and its unionsAGMA, which represents the chorus, singers, stage managers, and directors, and American Federation of Musicians Local 802, representing the orchestra and conductorsin an attempt to resolve an ongoing labor dispute.Last May, City Opera announced it could not afford to remain at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater. The company has reportedly cut its budget from $31 million to $13 million, and decreased its number of productions this season to only four. In an effort to reduce costs, City Opera wishes to do away with salaries for chorus and orchestra members and pay only for individual rehearsals and performances. The unions argue that the opera's proposal would eliminate dozens of jobs and result in pay reductions of 90 percent, even though in recent years workers have already taken large salary cuts. "As we have said countless times, we have to transition to the model that most opera companies usepaying people only for the work that they do," said George Steel, City Opera's general manager and artistic director, in a statement. Negotiations broke down on Jan. 7, when the unions refused accept the latest offer from management. Gail Kruvand, assistant principal bass and the chair of Local 802's City Opera negotiating committee, said in a statement: "We made a good-faith effort to say that, yes, we are willing to sacrificeDuring the mediation process that ended unsuccessfully, we offered further economic concessions. Steel's intransigence in rejecting our many constructive proposals is the death knell for one of NY's cultural treasures." On Sunday, City Opera cancelled rehearsal and issued a lockout, because the company believed it would have risked paying workers for rehearsals, only to have union members strike the opening night. "La Traviata" is scheduled to commence its run on Feb. 12 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. City Opera Lockout Leaves Upcoming Season Questionable By Frank Nestor January 9, 2012 NY City Opera declared a lockout for today's opening rehearsal of the season after contact negotiations with its unions deteriorated over the weekend. The order leaves the fate of City Opera's first production of the season, "La Traviata," and its upcoming truncated season, uncertain. Over the last three weeks, a federal mediator has been working with City Opera's management and its unionsAGMA, which represents the chorus, singers, stage managers, and directors, and American Federation of Musicians Local 802, representing the orchestra and conductorsin an attempt to resolve an ongoing labor dispute.Last May, City Opera announced it could not afford to remain at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater. The company has reportedly cut its budget from $31 million to $13 million, and decreased its number of productions this season to only four. In an effort to reduce costs, City Opera wishes to do away with salaries for chorus and orchestra members and pay only for individual rehearsals and performances. The unions argue that the opera's proposal would eliminate dozens of jobs and result in pay reductions of 90 percent, even though in recent years workers have already taken large salary cuts. "As we have said countless times, we have to transition to the model that most opera companies usepaying people only for the work that they do," said George Steel, City Opera's general manager and artistic director, in a statement. Negotiations broke down on Jan. 7, when the unions refused accept the latest offer from management. Gail Kruvand, assistant principal bass and the chair of Local 802's City Opera negotiating committee, said in a statement: "We made a good-faith effort to say that, yes, we are willing to sacrificeDuring the mediation process that ended unsuccessfully, we offered further economic concessions. Steel's intransigence in rejecting our many constructive proposals is the death knell for one of NY's cultural treasures." On Sunday, City Opera cancelled rehearsal and issued a lockout, because the company believed it would have risked paying workers for rehearsals, only to have union members strike the opening night. "La Traviata" is scheduled to commence its run on Feb. 12 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.