Musicians union OKS a new contract with S.A. Philharmonic
The San Antonio Philharmonic has ratified a collective bargaining agreement with the musicians union.
The musicians, who will perform the seventh program in their first full season this weekend, have been in negotiations since last fall with Local 23, the San Antonio chapter of the American Federation of Musicians.
That’s not the only bit of artsrelated union news this week. Staffers at SAY Sí, the youth arts organization, announced that they will be able to move forward with plans to unionize. The staffers have been pressing for that move for six months.
Contract negotiation, for which the staffers will be represented by the United Professional Organizers union, will begin in April.
The Philharmonic is made up of musicians who once played with the San Antonio Symphony, which folded last summer following decades of financial turmoil.
In its final months, the musicians were on strike as part of a labor dispute with the Symphony Society of San Antonio, the nonprofit board that ran the orchestra.
The Philharmonic began its first full concert season in September. It has included pops and classical concerts as well as a Young People’s Concerts series that reached more than 26,000 students across Bexar County.
The new contract will be in effect for the 2023-24 season, which starts this fall and will be structured similarly. Details are being hammered out for what that season will hold.
“The contract provides a greater amount of flexibility than the San Antonio Symphony CBA had,” said Philharmonic bassoonist and President Brian Petkovich, who helped negotiate it. “We’re basically hiring as needed, and the rates are good, but there is really not a guarantee of a certain number of weeks . ... What we’re trying to do is align everyone and show we can all work together so that we can make the case publicly that the community should get behind us and support the organization and support classical music in San Antonio.”
The musicians were represented in the negotiations by Petkovich; horn player Peter Rubins, who is the Philharmonic’s vice president; and former City Councilman Robert Treviño, who serves on the board.
Petkovich expects a season announcement some time in May.
The current season, which concludes May 27, has been produced without a collective bargaining agreement.
“It’s worked out,” Petkovich said. “I think the concerts we’ve been able to produce have been fantastic. We got some really wonderful guest conductors and guest artists to come. It’s been serious repertoire, and maybe it sounds different than it has in the past because it’s being planned more organically by the musicians in collaboration with these different artists.”