Orchestra has yet to settle contract dispute

David Sherry, NMSO management spokesman, said a decision must be made in the next week or so to determine the orchestra’s fate.

“If we don’t reach an agreement with the musicians by Thanksgiving, we will file for bankruptcy. It’s just a question of what form of bankruptcy,” Sherry said.

NMSO Player’s Association spokeswoman Denise Turner said the Player’s Association rejected the o er because management wanted the musicians to take bigger salary cuts than the management.

“When we went back and took those votes to our players, our players were pretty outraged that there was not equality of sacrifice, meaning the fact that the management, who makes way more than we do, were taking only 10 percent cuts in wages and bene ts, while the musicians, who make a fraction of that, were taking 23 percent,” she said.

Sherry said the information provided in the musician’s press releases and by Turner is inaccurate. He said the management was not asking musicians to take larger cuts than the management. A press release distributed by Sherry stated that management is asking musicians to take a cut between 12.1 and 18.4 percent.

“When you add in the amount of money lost to us (the NMSO management) in bene ts and wages, then you add that to what we’re losing in the current scal year, and you analyze it — it actually amounts to a 19.8 percent cut,” he said. “ ey want what I think they were calling ‘the equitable and shared sacri ce.’ 19.8 percent versus 12.2 to 18.4 — that seems pretty equitable and shared to me. In fact, it seems skewed a little higher on the sta side.”

Sherry’s press release stated that the new proposal, accepted by management on Oct. 28 and then rejected by the musicians, “differed from the NMSO management’s original economic proposal, which included pay reductions (for the musicians) of 18 to 23 percent.” Turner said she is not sure what the musicians will decide to do to avoid bankruptcy for the organization when they meet with management.

“It depends on what management proposes. ey’re the ones who requested we go back to the table. And hopefully we can work something out,” she said. “I think if the management said, ‘Hey, we’ll take the 23 percent cut the core (musicians are) taking,’ I think this would be done.”

Sherry said he could not reveal what the management will propose at the negotiations on Saturday. “It would be imprudent for the negotiating team to release information like that prior to the negotiation,” he said.

Sherry did, however, outline a general strategy that management is taking to avoid declaring bankruptcy.

“Our plan to avoid bankruptcy? Get an agreement with the musicians by Thanksgiving,” he said.