UNA VOCE March 2013 Vol

UNA VOCE March 2013 Vol. 20, No. 3 The Organization of Canadian Symphony Musicians (ocsm)isthe voice of Canadian professional orchestral musicians. ocsm’s mission is to uphold and improve the working conditions of professional Canadian orchestral musicians, to promote communication among its members, and to advocate on behalf of the Canadian cultural community. Editorial Vancouver dispute leads to By Barbara Hankins new rights for symphonic Editor extra musicians Does it matter to music lovers how the orchestra By Matt Heller looks? Many will say that people see us before they ocsm President hear us, and that ‘‘visual cohesion’’ is of paramount importance. Others say that a change of dress code In recent years, Vancouver Symphony musicians have from the stuffy tails and white tie is needed to break toured China, opened a new School of Music, and won down the barrier between the orchestra and audience. aGrammy Award. Atthe negotiating table, vso musi- Arlene Dahl’s article gives a clear overview of the cians have fought to keep pace with the city’s booming choices musicians and managements are considering. economy and to recover from a 25 per cent salary cut If you have an opinion on this, feel free to chime in on in 2000. The Vancouver Symphony’s last agreement the ocsm list or send me your thoughts for possible finished with the 2011–12 season, so negotiations use in the next Una Voce. should have begun last spring. What happened instead My personal view is was a contentious and complex dispute between the that while the dress vso Musicians Association (vsoma), and the Vancou- code should reflect our ver Musicians Association (vma), the afm Local repre- respect for our art and senting all unionized Vancouver musicians, including the tone of the concert, those in the vso. it may matter less than The previous contract, completed in 2009, brought the expression on our modest gains for full-time vso musicians, but extra faces when we are on and substitute musicians continued to fall behind. (For stage. If we look en- the purposes of this article, references to ‘extras’ in- gaged and excited clude substitutes as well.) By some measures, extras about what we are do- were earning 18 per cent less per hour,even without ing, that may affect the considering benefits received by full-time musicians. audience’s perceptions of the music more than what The vma board, under newly elected President David we are wearing. Brown (also a vso musician and 1st VP of ocsm)and Thanks to Matt Heller for a report on the resolution Secretary David Owen, viewed this disparity with of the ‘‘extras and subs voting’’ issue in Vancouver,to great concern. As the signatory to the orchestra’s col- Mark Tetreault for an introduction to useful resources lective agreement, the vma represents all musicians on the afm website, to Francine Schutzman for a sum- who work for the vso,extras as well as full-timers. If mary of the pension changes, and to our UV produc- extras were being chronically underpaid, as many felt tion manager Steve Izma for a notice concerning the they were, the vma could face Duty of Fair Representa- recently published biography of Georg Tintner. tion charges before the provincial Labour Relations Board. The vma had overseen all the negotiations during which the disparity between extra and full-time rates increased and, as is the reality in most orchestras, extra musicians had never been allowed to vote Page 2 UNA VOCE Vol. 20, No. 3 during ratification of collective agreements. •The vma will consult with the vsoma Orchestra The vsoma had already elected a Negotiating Com- Committee and/or the negotiating committee prior mittee, completed a survey of musicians, and felt qual- to considering and taking any action on matters ified to negotiate a fair and equitable contract. But that might affect vso members. during the term of the collective agreement over 200 One of the priorities of the most recent ocsm con- musicians play as extras with the vso,far exceeding ference, held jointly with the Canadian Conference the number of full-time players (66 in 2011–12, representing Locals, was to promote better communi- though the contract provides for 73). With equal votes cation between Locals and orchestra Players’ Commit- in ratification, extras could easily outvote full-time tees. Reaching this compromise took a great deal of players and radically shift the priorities of the agree- communication, as well as outside intervention, and ment. The vsoma would not agree to this. The vma its success will depend on more strong communication was equally adamant that maintaining the status quo going forward. Negotiations have now begun, and ev- of no votes for extras was not tenable. eryone involved seems hopeful that this will provide a As the dispute progressed, way forward, and perhaps even a precedent for other both sides sought outside orchestras to give extra musicians their due rights. help from the Symphonic Services Division, ocsm, and the B.C. Labour Rela- Symphonic Services tions Board. Atthe 2012 Resources Can Help Solve ocsm Conference in Toron- to, we held small meetings Your Problems with ocsm legal counsel by Mark Tetreault Michael Wright, Symphon- Director, ssd-cfm ic Services staff, vma Presi- dent David Brown, and Negotiating Committee Chair New Orchestra Committee members and Local officers Rebecca Whitling, and tried to prepare the ground for often need to know where they can find the informa- acompromise that could prevent legal battles. Though tion needed to solve their current problems. The an- opinions were strongly held, I was impressed by both swer is www.afm.org, a website that is host to a wide sides’ abilities to discuss their positions respectfully array of information for officers, committee members, and without rancor. and musicians at large. Acompromise was finally reached in November, In order to access this information, you must first thanks to an afm/cfm delegation that included VP register on the site. Registration is easy and free for all Canada Alan Willaert, Symphonic Services Director afm members. Jay Blumenthal, ssd Canada Director Mark Tetreault, Once you have signed up and logged on, click on and Ken Shirk from the afm West Coast office. The re- the red ‘‘myafm’’ button. This will bring you to your sulting agreement provides for: personal afm home page, where you can save your •Negotiating Committee membership: the Negotiat- favourite areas and documents on the site. ing Committee will include a musician engaged as Next, click on the blue tab called ‘‘Document Li- an extra, elected by all extra musicians who per- brary.’’ This will give you a list of folders, one of which formed over the past three seasons. is called ‘‘Symphonic Services.’’ Opening this folder •Pay equity for extra musicians: the Negotiating gives you access to a number of useful resources. Committee will make all efforts to achieve pay equi- The most important folder is the Resource Centre. ty for extra musicians within the term of the next This a relatively new area on the website. It contains collective agreement. opus 2012, which has current icsom, ocsm and ropa •Ratification rights for extra musicians: any extra Collective Agreements, electronic media agreements, musician who performed at least 33 per cent of the Strike Fund information, and other information on col- total services under the previous collective agree- lective bargaining, labour law,and the operation of lo- ment is eligible to participate in ratifying the succes- cal unions and committees. The Resource Centre also sor collective agreement. This formula means contains 14 years of wage charts. The wage charts are eleven extra musicians will be eligible for this in spreadsheet form, which can be downloaded. Once round; future rounds will be capped at no more downloaded they can easily be worked with to deter- than eleven. mine comparisons with peer orchestras, or trends over Vol. 20, No. 3 UNA VOCE Page 3 time. Next is the Resource Centre for Arbitration and more Symphony Orchestra and the Parsons New Court Decisions. When an orchestra committee or Lo- School for Design. The purpose: to redefine the image cal officer asks ‘‘Has this problem happened before un- and the functionality of traditional concert attire by der similar conditions? What did others argue and using breathable and more flexible fibers to construct what was the outcome?,’’ the answers may be found in garments that allow the freedom of movement and the indexed collection of arbitration, nlrb,and court comfort required to meet the physical demands of decisions issued pursuant to afm symphonic collective playing in an orchestra. It is interesting to note that bargaining agreements over the last sixty years. Final- the public responses to the article mirror those of most ly,the Resource Centre hosts an ever-expanding collec- musicians. Some bemoan the dumbing down of sym- tion of webinars. There is a series of videos about phony patrons who show up to concerts wearing casu- contract enforcement and a series about collective bar- al clothing. They believe concerts are special events gaining. These webinars can be used as orientation for and not bothering to show up in your Sunday best new committee members or as refreshers for veterans. shows a lack of respect both for the musicians and the The folder ‘‘ssd Handouts’’ contains documents on music. These respondents indicated that they love to awide range of topics, such as Bylaws Pertaining to dress up for their night on the town and expect the or- Symphonic Orchestras, Cliff Notes for Robert’s Rules, chestra musicians to be formally attired as well.

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