St. Paul Park refinery picks fight with Building Trades unions, too

March 25, 2021 by

Pipefitters Local 455’s (L to R) Troy Heidrich, Dan Clark and Jacob Bear demonstrate outside the Marathon refinery in St. Paul Park.

Teamsters aren’t the only union members Marathon is looking to replace with nonunion, out-of-state workers at the St. Paul Park refinery.

They aren’t the only ones fighting back, either.

Earlier this month, several Building and Construction Trades unions began setting up banners around the refinery, publicly shaming Marathon for turning its back on Minnesota contractors and tradespeople – and for putting the safety of St. Paul Park and surrounding communities at risk.

Although some of the banners are within shouting distance of locked-out Teamsters’ picket lines, the two disputes are not connected. Both reflect a troubling disregard for community safety on Marathon’s part, however.

“Marathon has been going down this pathway for a long time,” Don Mullin, executive secretary of the St. Paul Building and Construction Trades Council, said. “They’ve been taking on efforts to be anti-organized labor because that’s the way they do it in other states.”

Ironworkers Local 512’s Ted DeSantell (L) and Nate O’Reilly
Laborers Local 563’s Sarah Monkey, Stephen Cruz and Jade Monkey, Sarah’s daughter
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 110’s Matt Walker, Dick Schmitt and Nick Rosenberg;

The dispute heated up this year after Marathon informed a union contractor there was no work forthcoming at the refinery, despite a scheduled maintenance turnaround beginning in late April. Turnarounds involve dangerous work, Mullin said, and can mean hundreds, even thousands, of jobs for tradespeople at a refinery like the one in St. Paul Park.

But rather than trust that work to highly skilled tradespeople who live and work in the area, Marathon is cutting costs by bringing in workers from across the country.

Not only does that undermine Minnesota’s labor standards, Building Trades unions say, it calls into question the safety of work being done at the refinery, located near homes and businesses in St. Paul Park and Newport.

Mullin accused Marathon of scraping the “bottom of the barrel” for tradespeople, bringing them in from Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky and elsewhere. He said unions are taking a stand because Minnesota deserves better, and he encouraged members of the public to do the same.

“It’s disgusting what Marathon is doing,” Mullin said. “We need to write Marathon or call them and tell them this is the wrong way to handle their business. They need to be a good community partner. Right now they’re not.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Union family sticking together as Marathon lockout drags on

March 25, 2021 by

Locked-out workers’ family and friends picket the Marathon refinery during a solidarity event.

SAINT PAUL PARK – Megan Christner and Amber Marlatt could never put a price on the value of their husbands’ safety at work. So it infuriates them to see their husbands’ employer, the Marathon oil refinery here, do just that.

“It’s his life we’re talking about,” Marlatt said of her husband, Dave. “And Marathon cares more about saving money?

“I’m just blown away that someone could be so selfish.”

Outraged and unreserved, Christner, Marlatt and dozens of other family members and friends took over the Teamsters Local 120 picket line outside the refinery March 11, showing the depth of community support behind nearly 200 union members who have been locked out by Marathon since Jan. 22.

“I stand behind him 1,000%,” Christner said of her husband, Jason, an operator at Marathon. “I would be out here every night if I could, every day if I could. I told him do not back down. You’ve got to stand up for what you believe.”

What Christner and his fellow Teamsters believe is that Marathon’s contract demands, which the company has clung to in more than 24 bargaining sessions since November, would make workers inside the refinery less safe from workplace accidents – and put nearby communities at risk.

Members of Local 120’s bargaining team say the company is dead set on shaking up staffing at the facility. Management wants to replace some skilled, highly trained, experienced union members with workers from lowest-bidder subcontractors, including firms from outside Minnesota.

That’s a concern both for Teamsters and for their loved ones, many of whom already have grown accustomed to worrying about what happens inside the refinery.

Megan Christner said she remembers telling Jason not to apply for a job at the refinery in the first place because of the risks and hazardous materials involved. “Those are thoughts, when he goes to work, that I still have,” she said.

“The company is penny pinching,” Christner added. “They want to save a buck. But this is about lives, about our husbands and our friends and our family members coming home.”

Amber Marlatt said the thought that Dave, an operator at the refinery, would feel less safe working under Marathon’s contract proposals, is “heartbreaking and scary.”

“We have two girls, 4 and 8, and they want their dad to come home,” Amber Marlatt added. “I need him to come home. That’s why we’re not giving up.”

Family members aren’t the only outsiders with a stake in the standoff between Marathon and Local 120 over safety. The refinery is nestled between residential areas of Newport and St. Paul Park, along the banks of the Mississippi River.

Amber Marlatt (L) and Megan Christner

In April 2018 an explosion rocked the Husky Energy refinery in Superior, Wis., and ensuing fires prompted local authorities to evacuate people living nearby. Two dozen people working in the facility were injured.

Among the Teamsters locked out by Marathon in St. Paul Park are several workers trained in fighting chemical fires. Most fire departments in the area focus on training to fight residential fires, union members say, leaving the refinery poorly protected during the lockout – and potentially, if management gets its way in negotiations, for good.

It’s no surprise, then, that the March 11 event drew community members to the picket line, support Christner called “refreshing to see.”

“People are here because this is where they live, and they don’t want to see something potentially bad happen in their community,” she said.

“Marathon is paying all these people to come in from out of state and work during this lockout, paying for their expenses, paying for their hotels. Meanwhile, their loyal workers are out here on the line, fighting for the community’s safety. People appreciate that.”

Filed Under: Community, Union Events Tagged With: , , , ,

Shutdown a ‘lose-lose scenario’ for veterans, furloughed workers

October 8, 2013 by
Stanley Walton, locked out of his job with the U.S. Veterans Benefits Administration, joins a picket outside the Whipple Federal Building on Fort Snelling.

Stanley Walton, a locked-out member of AFGE Local 1969, joins a picket outside the Whipple Federal Building on Fort Snelling.

Is Stanley Walton’s work essential? That depends on whom you ask.

Walton was one of 7,000 “non-essential” employees furloughed by the U.S. Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) today. He and about 150 others reported to the Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling, where they were handed letters instructing them to stay home until lawmakers in Washington had resolved the partial federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1.

Although the government considers Walton’s work non-essential, the homeless veterans who rely on him probably disagree. Walton says he connects “our most vulnerable veterans” with the housing, medical and other benefits they’ve earned as a result of their service.

That work doesn’t stop just because Congress can’t agree on a budget.

“It’s devastating,” said Walton, who served 25 years in the Army before taking a job with the VBA eight years ago. “I’ve received calls from veterans, and I have to let them know I can’t help you until the furlough is over.”

Others locked out today include workers who process appeals made by veterans claiming medical, job-preference or other benefits. These claims already can take more than a year to process, and the shutdown will only lengthen the amount of time veterans have to wait for a decision on their appeals.

The American Federation of Government Employees, a union of 670,000 federal employees nationwide, represents 208,000 workers with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Alma Lee, president of AFGE’s National VA Council, called the furlough a “lose-lose scenario for federal employees and the veterans we serve.”

“Veterans sacrificed greatly to earn their benefits, and we need to be on the job to deliver them,” Lee said. “VBA is already critically understaffed and the lockout is only making it worse. Our veterans deserve better from their elected leaders.”

A handful of AFGE members, supporters from other unions and veterans joined a picket line outside the Whipple Building today. They pinned responsibility on House Republicans, who are using the shutdown as leverage in budget negotiations, hoping President Obama and other Democrats will cave to their demands – like defunding the Affordable Care Act – in order to reopen the VBA and other government agencies.

“We went through this 20 years ago when the government shut down,” said Craig Maehling, a disabled veteran from Minneapolis. “It was wrong then, and it’s wrong now.”

[Click here to demand House Republicans allow a vote on a clean bill to keep the government open.]

AFGE members and supporters from the labor community picket outside the Whipple Federal Building.

AFGE members and supporters from the labor community picket outside the Whipple Federal Building.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Gloves come off as orchestra musicians mark one year locked out of their jobs

October 1, 2013 by

web.orchestra-lockout3Since Day 1 the Minnesota Orchestra lockout has been taking a personal toll on musicians. Now, one year into the work stoppage, things are getting personal for the orchestra’s Board of Directors too.

Union musicians, members of the American Federation of Musicians Local 30-73, marked the one-year anniversary of the start of their work stoppage today, rallying outside Orchestra Hall downtown Minneapolis with patrons, community supporters and the president of their international union, who wasn’t shy about naming names.

In a fiery speech before a crowd of more than 200 people, AFM President Ray Hair called out 11 members of the board, and he identified most by their corporate employers, including Cargill, General Mills, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, United Health, 3M, Xcel Energy, Land o’ Lakes and the Star Tribune.

“Does that sound like a board that doesn’t have any money?” Hair asked. “Or does that sound like a bunch of bullies?

“I say no more groveling to these union-busters. These people and their companies are not worthy of our business.”

[Click here for Save Our Symphony Minnesota’s guide to calling or e-mailing members of the Board of Directors!]

Musicians voted unanimously last weekend to reject the orchestra’s latest contract proposal, which would have slashed salaries by about 25 percent over three years.

Signing bonuses of $20,000 sweetened the offer, but musicians did not budge from their stance that significant compensation cuts will damage the orchestra’s long-term artistic viability, limiting its ability to attract qualified musicians – and prompting current musicians to seek jobs elsewhere.

Musicians have presented management with counteroffers, including some that would cut their pay by as much as 8 percent. The also say they are open to a “play-and-talk” arrangement that would allow concerts to resume while contract negotiations play out.

Still, management has shown little interest in compromise, Tony Ross, a cellist and member of the musicians’ bargaining team, told the crowd. Ross said he’s lost count of how many different offers the union has presented to management.

“They come back and make the same offer over and over again,” he said.

The lockout, of course, is a deliberate strategy to inflict economic hardship on workers in the hopes of exacting concessions at the bargaining table. The Board of Directors, Hair said, appears committed to the strategy, regardless of its effect on the orchestra’s reputation. Management announced yesterday it had backed out of concerts scheduled next month at Carnegie Hall, and today Osmo Vanska, the orchestra’s renowned conductor for the last 10 years, resigned.

“I call it economic terrorism by the rich big shots in this town,” Hair said. “It’s management without music, that’s what it is. And it’s coming from managers who wouldn’t know the difference between a banjo and a bass drum.”

The unanimous contract vote indicates musicians, too, remain resolved as ever, although many musicians with the orchestra a year ago have taken positions elsewhere. The musicians maintain a list of “ghosts lost to the lockout” on its website.

Still, they are forging ahead with plans to stage a series of concerts in various venues this fall, beginning with performances Friday and Saturday at Ted Mann Concert Hall. Emanuel Ax, a Grammy-winning pianist, will be featured in a program slated to include Stravinsky’s “Suite from The Firebird” – a piece, Ross noted, about “rising from the ashes.”

“We want to serve our community because it is the community that owns this orchestra, it is not the management,” Ross said. “So if we have to play every other hall but (Orchestra Hall), we will until we can get back where we belong.”

Patrons and musicians gather for a demonstration outside Orchestra Hall organized by Save Our Symphony Minnesota last month.

Patrons and musicians gather for a demonstration outside Orchestra Hall organized by Save Our Symphony Minnesota last month.

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Union opposes U.S. Bank CEO’s campaign for Minneapolis Institute of Arts board

July 17, 2013 by

11287480Local 26 of the Service Employees International Union announced today it will protest outside the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ annual membership meeting tomorrow, urging members not to elect U.S. Bank CEO Richard Davis to their Board of Trustees.

Davis is the immediate past chair of the Minnesota Orchestra’s board. The orchestra has been locking union musicians out of their jobs since Oct. 1, 2012, and the 2012-13 concert schedule was wiped out as a result.

SEIU Local 26 represents security officers who work for the MIA.

In a letter sent to MIA members today, Local 26 President Javier Morillo urged members to take a good look at Davis’ record before voting in the Board of Trustees election.

“Given Richard Davis’s track record at the Orchestra, we are very concerned about the negative influence he may exert on the MIA board,” Morillo’s letter says. “The Orchestra’s recent actions have shown a callous disregard for its employees, the community, and the quality of the institution itself.

“Richard Davis has inflicted catastrophic damage on the orchestra and left fans disheartened and demoralized. Don’t let this happen to the MIA.”

Morillo called on Davis to remove his name from consideration, as MIA members must vote for or against a slate of candidates, which includes Davis. Members cannot vote against individual nominees.

In a press release, Local 26 announced plans “to greet those attending Thursday evening’s MIA annual membership meeting,” and said their members will be joined by Minnesota Orchestra supporters.

The membership meeting will begin at 4:30 p.m. inside Pillsbury Auditorium on the MIA’s campus, 2400 Third Avenue South in Minneapolis.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Community group plans dialogue on Minnesota Orchestra’s future

July 17, 2013 by

Orchestrate Excellence, a grassroots group of audience members and business owners working to end the Minnesota Orchestra lockout, will host a community forum, “Our Community’s Commitment to the Minnesota Orchestra,” Aug. 20 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis.

The forum will explore the community’s role in supporting the Minnesota Orchestra.

“We are hosting this gathering to demonstrate our strong commitment to our orchestra, and to initiate a broader dialogue concerning the ways we, the community, can invest our time, talent and resources to help our orchestra thrive in the future,” Orchestrate Excellence co-chair Laurie Greeno said in a press release announcing the event.

The forum will feature keynote speaker Alan Fletcher, president of the Aspen Music Festival. Fletcher mentioned the Minnesota Orchestra lockout, which began Oct. 1, 2012, in a convocation address last month.

Westminster Church is located at 1200 Marquette Avenue South in Minneapolis.

For more information on the forum, monitor Orchestrate Excellence’s website, www.orchestrateexcellence.org.

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , ,

Letters to the Editor: Thanks from sugar workers

June 28, 2013 by

CrystalSugICON_1_0(This letter was received by Bobby Kasper, president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation. In addition to donating funds to the locked-out workers’ cause, the RLF organized two holiday drives, collecting more than $50,000 worth of toys, household supplies and cash donations for sugar workers and their families.)

Dear President Bobby Kasper,

We would like to personally thank you for your personal support and for the contributions by unions and individuals to the hardship and action funds that your regional federation organized. We will always be grateful for the hard work you have done, along with our members and their families.

  •  John Riskey, President BCTGM Local 167G
  •  Roger Delage, President BCTGM Local 267G
  •  Gayln Olson, President BCTGM Local 372G

*****

New approach to labor education

The other night I met a few people who found out I was a St. Paul Steamfitter/Pipefitter and proud to be so. A group of people verbally attacked me and told me, “The union I work for does nothing for me and steals money from me in the form of union dues!”

So I sat back and told the group of attackers, in a very polite tone of voice, “I respect your vision and opinion, but I don’t work for a union. I work for a contractor who pays me, and I am represented by the union that I chose to pay minimal dues to.”

I used to get upset and argue with friends and relatives about people’s ignorance on skilled labor and how we earn a wage. I have now learned and like to educate others, that anyone who earns a wage is done so out of an arrangement between two parties. Party No. 1 is the party that pays; party No. 2 is the party that gets paid.

I belong to Party No. 2 and choose, along with my skilled brothers and sisters, to earn wages working for union contractors. These wages are based off a contract that was collectively bargained between our membership and the Minnesota Mechanical Contractors Association, which represents the contractors we work for.

– Pauly Strusz, Pipefitters Local 455

Filed Under: Labor Voices Tagged With: , , , , ,

Unions see plenty to like in results of 2013 legislative session

May 30, 2013 by
Service Employees International Union members and staff join a rally for marriage equality at the Capitol. Unions were a big part of the successful push to legalize same-sex marriage.

Service Employees International Union members and staff join a rally for marriage equality at the Capitol. Unions were a big part of the successful push to legalize same-sex marriage.

Legislative leaders called 2013 the “education session” for the new investments in E-12 students, and a bill to extend union rights to 21,000 child-care providers and home health care workers grabbed headlines as Republicans tried to filibuster it to death.

But the 2013 legislative session yielded many other victories for union members and middle class families. Here’s a look at some of the less-publicized measures passed by labor-endorsed majorities in the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton.

Musicians locked out by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra perform an impromptu concert in the hall outside a Minnesota House committee hearing on lockouts.

Musicians locked out by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra perform an impromptu concert in the hall outside a Minnesota House committee hearing on lockouts.

• Protections for locked-out workers. Included in the jobs bill is a 26-week extension of unemployment-insurance benefits for any worker whose employer locks them out.

Lockouts have gained popularity among Minnesota employers looking to flex their muscles in contract negotiations with union workers. Minnesota Orchestra musicians remain locked out of their jobs, while St. Paul Chamber Orchestra musicians and workers at American Crystal Sugar in the Red River Valley recently struck deals to return to work.

Lawmakers viewed the extension of unemployment benefits as a way to mitigate the negative impact lockouts have had on families, communities and businesses.

• Marriage equality. Thousands gathered outside the Minnesota State Capitol on May 14 to watch Dayton sign legislation granting same-sex couples the right to marry. Several Minnesota unions supported the legislation as an issue important to their members and as an advance in equal rights for all.

Eliot Seide, executive director of AFSCME Council 5, explained the union’s decision to endorse marriage equality: “Same-sex couples pay taxes in Minnesota. They vote here, run businesses here, and serve in our military. They work hard and contribute to our communities, and they have children who deserve to grow up in stable families with married parents.

“Everyone should be able to marry the person they love. No one should be singled out and denied the economic protections and cultural privileges associated with matrimony.”

• Fair trade advisory council. The jobs bill also included reauthorization of the Trade Policy Advisory Council, which saw its authority “sunset” in 2012, but in a new form – one more inclusive of the groups with a stake in international trade policy. The TPAC is required to meet at least once a year and report back to the governor and Legislature about potential U.S. trade agreements and their impact on the state’s economy. The council also may offer draft legislation to implement the recommendations.

Click here to read more about the reauthorized Trade Policy Advisory Council.

• Construction jobs. The Legislature did not pass a large bonding bill, but it did approve much-needed repairs to the Capitol building. Lawmakers also made investments in job creation tools and key construction projects like the Mall of America expansion.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Cigars, baseball, competitive cocktail mixing and more

May 1, 2013 by
Neighbors of the Lloyd C. Reppe, a polio victim, on St. Paul’s East Side saw “an exhibition of complete coordination, high skill and good fellowship” in May 1953, when 18 members of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers Local 61 painted the Repp house – and did it in exactly two hours, according to the May 14 edition of The Union Advocate.

Neighbors of the Lloyd C. Reppe, a polio victim, on St. Paul’s East Side saw “an exhibition of complete coordination, high skill and good fellowship” in May 1953, when 18 members of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers Local 61 painted the Repp house – and did it in exactly two hours, according to the May 14 edition of The Union Advocate.

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what the newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

The St. Paul Cigarmakers struck a deal with the St. Paul Saints in May 1913, granting the union the exclusive privilege of selling cigars during baseball games at Lexington Park all season long.

The Minnesota Union Advocate, in its May 23 edition, celebrated the deal as “an advanced step” in efforts to promote “home industry by patronizing local manufactories.”

“In consequence of this step there will not be sold on the base ball grounds a single non-union cigar during the rest of the season,” The Advocate reported. “Union men who patronize the games can get such cigars as they want, made by union labor in clean and sanitary shops and of good and wholesome material.”

Under the terms of the deal, the cigar makers’ union operated vending stands throughout Lexington Park, located at the corner of Lexington Parkway and University Avenue.

The ballpark burned to the ground a year later – no word on whether cigar ash was to blame – but was quickly rebuilt. It housed the Saints, charter members of the minor league American Association, from 1897 through 1956, when the team moved to Midway Stadium.

75 Years Ago: Builders halted housing construction

In a first for the city of St. Paul, an association of 127 homebuilders shut down construction of more than 100 new homes in May 1938, locking out union carpenters and building laborers in an attempt to drive down wages.

The lockout, which began May 16, failed. The reason, according to analysis in The Advocate, was lack of public support.

“From its inception it was obvious that the strike was not popular with the general public,” The Advocate reported June 2.

In order to return to work, homebuilders demanded carpenters accept a cut in hourly wages from $1.25 to $1, and laborers accept a wage cut from 75 cents to 60 cents. Both wage scales had been established in union contracts settled a year earlier.

More, the homebuilders had no interest in negotiating a solution, according to The Advocate.

“On several occasions when the St. Paul Building Trades Council undertook to arrange meetings with the representatives of the Home Builders for the purpose of ironing out any misunderstandings … the association refused.”

Union members returned to work – without a pay cut – May 31.

60 Years Ago: Union bartenders held cocktail contest

Billed by The Advocate as “one of the most unique events in the history of St. Paul trade unionism,” the first citywide Cocktail Mixing Championship drew 18 union bartenders – and hundreds of thirsty spectators – to the Blue Ox Room of the Hotel St. Francis on May 19, 1953.

Co-sponsored by the ice industry, the Libbey Glass Company and Local 287 of the Bartenders Union, the competition awarded gold plaques to the “most original” entries in three categories: gin cocktail, whiskey cocktail and tall drink.

The Advocate reported the results in its May 21 edition:

“When the judges had turned in their score cards it was found that Vincent Gustafson, of Gannon’s, had won with his ‘Apple-blossom Cocktail,’ Reuben Katz, of the Hotel Lowry took a plaque for his ‘Sky Ride,’ a tall drink, and Nick Manson, of the Lexington bar, won the third plaque with his ‘Party Sipper.’”

(Sadly, The Advocate didn’t print recipes.)

The three winning drink formulas were entered in a nationwide contest.

Joan Simpson, a teacher at Webster Magnet Elementary School, was not only adopted by Steelworkers Local 7263, she was made an honorary member of the union.

Joan Simpson, a teacher at Webster Magnet Elementary School, was not only adopted by Steelworkers Local 7263, she was made an honorary member of the union.

25 Years Ago: Teachers ‘adopted’ by local unions

The St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly rolled out an “Adopt-a-Teacher” initiative in May 1988, lining up unions to sponsor St. Paul teachers to promote labor studies in their classroom.

Remedial reading teacher Mike LaBerge was adopted by Local 7201 of the Communications Workers of America – an experience that gave him a “fresh outlook” on the a labor movement, The Advocate reported June 6, 1988.

“LaBerge has attended one meeting of Local 7201 and plans to continue meeting with the local during the summer to develop lesson plans for the fall,” The Advocate reported.

The Trades and Labor Assembly spearheaded several initiatives to make labor studies a bigger part of public education, including a draft “labor curriculum” for students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Filed Under: From the Archives Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Musicians ratify contract, call for new SPCO leadership

April 29, 2013 by

spcomuslogo1Stressing that they “remain deeply concerned” about the ensemble’s future, musicians of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra today announced their vote to ratify a three-year agreement with the orchestra, officially ending the lockout that began Oct. 21, 2012.

The new contract will reduce the size of the SPCO from 34 to 28 musicians. It also slashes by more than 20 percent musicians’ salaries and “overscale” pay, additional compensation some musicians receive for special skills or leadership roles.

In a press release, members of the musicians’ negotiating team said they accepted the pay cuts in order to avoid a two-tiered pay scale that would make it difficult to attract high-caliber artists to positions with the SPCO.

“The vast difference between the new SPCO annual salary of $60,000 and the salaries of other major American orchestras, many of which exceed $100,000, will make attracting such musicians very difficult,” said Carole Mason Smith, chair of the negotiating committee.

Musicians estimated the SPCO will achieve cost savings of $5 million by 2016 as a result of the new contract – and the 191-day lockout, which will be lifted tomorrow.

In the press release, musicians also “called for the immediate commencement of a search for a new SPCO leader with proven orchestra management experience, and the vision and skill to substantially increase revenues and to maintain and enhance the SPCO’s status as one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras. If revenues are not significantly increased in the next three years, the artistic quality of this Orchestra will not be preserved.”

“We’re eager and excited to return to the stage and play music again for our loyal audiences,” Mason Smith said. “We’ve keenly missed performing for our community, but we remain deeply concerned about the artistic quality of the SPCO for future generations.”

SPCO concerts are scheduled to resume May 9. Click here for ticket information.

The musicians of the SPCO are members of American Federation of Musicians Local 30-73, which also represents musicians locked out of their jobs by the Minnesota Orchestra since Oct. 1, 2012.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , ,
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