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Symphony, musicians find accord
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By Kym Reinstadler | MiBiz
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The Grand Rapids Symphony and its musicians credited open communication during contract negotiations as a key reason for settling on a labor contract. COURTESY PHOTO |
GRAND RAPIDS — After four months of labor dissonance, the Grand Rapids Symphony and its musicians are now in tune.
The symphony’s board of directors and the Grand Rapids Federation of Musicians Local 56 agreed to a four-year contract in September, one day before the 2011-2012 season began.
The contract maintains a 40-week season for the next three years for 50 full-time and 30 part-time musicians. Some vacancies will remain temporarily unfilled.
“It was hard, but we just kept talking,” said Diane Helle, a violinist who shared the musicians’ negotiating duties with Martha Bowman, principal bassoonist.
The parties called upon Bill Gill, commissioner of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service at the Michigan Labor Management Association, to help them avoid an impasse.
Gill used shuttle diplomacy, serving as the intermediary. Negotiators on both sides of the table welcomed the opportunity to talk to 
Gill freely, without the pressure of principal-to-principal contact, said Grand Rapids Symphony President and CEO Peter Kjome and Helle, who gave a joint interview to MiBiz.
The parties, advised by different accountants, interpreted the symphony’s finances differently. Gill urged parties to take a fresh look instead of “describing the same thing, but from different planets,” Helle said.
With Gill carrying communication back and forth between bargaining teams, a common financial outlook upon which to write a new contract was gradually accepted.
The new agreement updates a contract signed in 2009 amid financial turmoil caused by state funding cuts, a topsy-turvy stock market and concert-goers tightening their purse strings.
Under the previous pact, musicians’ salaries were cut and frozen after the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs slashed funding from $216,000 to $12,000 in a single year. At the same time, income from the symphony’s endowment slumped with the stock market.
Those same factors resulted in a 26-week Detroit Symphony Orchestra strike, which ended in April.
In Grand Rapids, corporate donations dropped and ticket sales remained flat as the recession took hold, but there was reason for hope. Sponsors reduced funding instead of pulling it. Patrons continued to attend, although many bought packages with fewer concerts.
Salaries and benefits won’t return to earlier levels under the new contract, but modest annual increases will begin in the 2012-2013 season.
“A line has been drawn, and we’re beginning to walk back,” Helle said.
Kjome said his salary is 22 percent below pre-2009 levels. Music Director David Lockington and Associate Conductor John Varineau’s took comparable cuts.
Knowing sacrifices were shared made them easier to bear, Helle said.
The symphony couldn’t afford the new contract without its two-year-old board-powered initiative to bolster fundraising and improve concert ticket sales, Kjome said.
Three years ago, the symphony added a development committee, which has grown to 23 volunteers. Last year, the committee raised an additional $426,000 toward the symphony’s $8 million budget.
The new contract caused the symphony board to “stretch a bit,” Helle said.
Heading into negotiations last April, neither side imagined an agreement longer than two years was possible because of economic uncertainty, Helle and Kjome said.
“What made this possible was a level of trust throughout the organization that is rooted in a commitment to communicate,” Kjome said.
Since 1994, the symphony board has allowed musicians to elect two from its ranks to serve as voting members of the board. The first two voting members were Helle and Kjome, an oboe player, then on the other side of the music stand.
Having members on the board gives musicians direct knowledge of issues the board is facing and a framework for making decisions together, Helle said.
In addition, management makes a presentation to musicians within two weeks after board meetings and then answers their questions.
“It’s a time when there’s less talking and more listening,” said Kjome, who was hired as the symphony’s president and CEO three years ago. “A two-way conversation is critical for building trust.”
The new contract would not have been possible if the symphony had an “anonymous” board, Helle said.
A special board meeting was called Aug. 18 because the two sides were still far apart.
Tensions were escalating, but the two voting musicians on the board were still put on the meeting’s agenda to share their perceptions of how talks were going, a gesture Helle appreciated.
“Given the challenges arts organizations are experiencing, a long-term agreement is a significant achievement,” Kjome said. “We have a financial roadmap, and we’re working it.”
Bravo.
