Opera musicians announce their strike-authorization vote. (photo courtesy Musicians of the MN Opera Orchestra)
Orchestra musicians are tapping into solidarity from the arts community in another tough round of contract negotiations with the Minnesota Opera.
Members of Twin Cities Musicians Union–AFM Local 30-73, who voted unanimously this month to authorize a strike against the opera company, will hold a benefit concert at 7 p.m. Nov. 1 in the University of Minnesota’s Ted Mann Concert Hall to raise funds in case of a work stoppage. Tickets are not required for admission, but donations are welcome.
The Musicians of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra will be joined by vocalists from the opera chorus, esteemed soloists and Minnesota Orchestra players, all under the direction of former Minnesota Opera Music Director Michael Christie.
“It will be a glorious celebration of what we are actually able to provide and what we want to provide,” violist Susan Janda said.
The show of support, Janda and fellow members of the orchestra musicians’ bargaining team said, reflects the shared interest arts workers and patrons – and arts teachers and students – have in union contracts that respect and retain top talent.
“The patrons and supporters we talk with care about opera, they care about the artists, they care about what happens on that stage and in the orchestra pit, and they want this company to succeed,” Rebecca Arons, a cellist and member of the orchestra musicians’ bargaining committee, said. “So do we.”
Compensation has been the primary sticking point in the union’s contract negotiations with the Minnesota Opera. Orchestra players’ pay has remained flat – at $12,000 per season – since they settled their last union contract nearly four years ago.
Those negotiations stretched deep into the opera company’s season and saw union members appeal directly to patrons for solidarity. Musicians handed out leaflets before performances at the Ordway Center and targeted opera board members with an email campaign.
This time around, union members authorized a strike before rehearsals even began for the Oct. 31 season opener, hoping to sound the alarm on proposals from management that, they believe, raise concerns about the company’s artistic direction.
The opera’s representatives at the bargaining table have said the company has “no appetite for increasing the salary of the orchestra musicians,” Janda said, even after the four-year freeze. At the same time, opera staff and leadership have received 2% annual raises in recent years, and the company’s net assets have grown by $13.8 million since 2020.
Musicians have proposed a 4% increase, which would amount to about $80,000 in the first year. That’s roughly 0.5% of the Minnesota Opera’s operating budget – and likely close to what the company is paying the union-busting law firm Littler Mendelson, which also represents Starbucks, to stonewall musicians at the bargaining table.
“Management has told us they can afford our proposal,” Arons, the musicians’ lead negotiator, said. “They have also told us they simply don’t want to.”
For Janda and others, it raises the question of whether the Minnesota Opera sees a future without orchestra musicians – a question they believe patrons would like to hear answered, too.
“I don’t know about you, but when I think of an opera, you would imagine that there’s an orchestra that goes with it,” Janda said. “Not people singing over a track or a chamber music group, we’re talking a full symphonic orchestra. That’s our concern.”
– Michael Moore, UA editor
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