After several negotiations and an almost six month strike, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra told its musicians they are being issued a “last, best and final offer.”
According to Todd Jelen, principle bassoonist and member of the WCO players committee, the WCO “illegally” conducted contract negotiations and is trying to cut the musicians’ services in half. Services, as defined by Jelen, are any time the orchestra rehearses or performs.
Originally the WCO proposed to cut these services from 75 to 45, allowing a margin for them to be reduced to 35, Jelen said.
“With only six months notice they’re cutting our job in half,” Jelen said.
As of January, there were only two items the WCO and its musicians were still negotiating in the contract, Jelen said, adding the WCO is publicly claiming they rejected the contract as a whole. Because the WCO retracted their agreement, the orchestra musicians consider their actions “illegal,” since the musicians are in a union.
“We went back to them and said ‘Hey, we need to get these issues resolved’ or our next concert is in jeopardy,” Jelen said.
Because of the strike, which Jelen said began Oct. 1, the WCO has cancelled four concerts at the Overture Center thus far, said Rob Chappell, spokesperson for the Overture Center.
However, since the WCO still honors their contract and pays for the rent of the Capitol Theater, the center only lost ticket and facility fees, which Chappell said is a relatively small amount of money.
Last month, the WCO musicians filed charges against the National Labor Relations Board because the board retracted the drafted contract, Jelen said. He added no charges are formally documented because the paperwork is still being processed.
WCO Executive Director Doug Gerhart did not return several phone calls as of press time.
However, Jelen said Gerhart told the orchestra the board “repealed their contract order.”
Jelen added there is a lot of “anger and manipulation” because he believes Gerhart was not bargaining in good faith. Even if the contract had passed the WCO, Jelen said Gerhart told him the board would not have accepted the contract.
