CSO strike over as musicians, board ratify new contract
For the past seven weeks, the musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra had been on strike over two issues above all: salary and pension.
The musicians voted unanimously Saturday afternoon to ratify a contract settling those matters, following negotiations Friday with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office. The CSOA board, which manages the institution, voted Saturday evening to approve the new five-year contract agreement.
Regarding salary, the contract calls for an increase of 2% during the first two years of the contract, 2.5% the third year, 3.25% the fourth year and 3.5% the fifth, “reaching an annual minimum base salary of $181,272 in the final year of the contract,” according to a CSOA statement.
The contract would be retroactive to September 2018.
Throughout the negotiations that have been underway since that date, the musicians have argued that their pay should be at least equal to that of orchestras in Los Angeles and San Francisco, which are the highestpaid in the country.
Though the new contract will not achieve that goal, “Let’s put it this way — we are not falling further behind,” said CSO bassist Stephen Lester, chair of the musicians’ negotiating committee.
“We understood that the fairly large gulf between those two orchestras and us wasn’t going to be made up in the term of one contract. But we were successful in changing the direction, the trend. In other words, we’re keeping pace now, and possibly even gaining a little.”
CSOA President Jeff Alexander said: “We are pleased that we came to an agreement on a five-year contract. … We are also pleased to come to an agreement on the increase in wages.”
Regarding pension, the musicians objected to management’s proposal to shift from a traditional defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan.
The new contract makes that transition, freezing the musicians’ accrued funds in the defined benefit plan; the musicians will have two options on when to make the switch to the new plan and freeze the old one, Alexander said: July 1, 2020, or July 1, 2023.
“That will be a fundamental change,” said Lester. “The plan that is frozen will continue to provide the benefits that people had earned.
“The association has agreed to use a benchmark that increases annually by 1% from the current pension benefit … so that if anyone’s direct contribution plan performs poorly, the association will make up the difference with an annuity at the point of retirement.”
Meaning that the association provides a kind of base-level assurance for the musicians’ pensions.
“It’s a way of providing a guaranteed benefit, which is not in the current defined benefit plan,” Lester added.
Alexander said: “We introduced, at their request, a way in which the current musicians can be guaranteed that, when they retire — whether five years from now or 35 years from now — they will be able to receive in their retirement the same amount that they would have received if the defined benefit plan had remained open,” based on a particular numerical calculation.
“That would be a combination of the frozen defined benefit and the new defined contribution plan.”
New hires to the CSO will be placed in the new defined contribution plan, leaving veteran players and newcomers in differing pension plans. Both sides have agreed to meet during the next year “to figure out a plan that would somehow deal with the question of equitability,” Lester said. “So that we wouldn’t have a two-tier system, so that new hires would have significantly different benefits than old hires.”
Said Alexander: “We agreed that over the course of the coming year we would put together a joint committee to analyze if there’s a way for the two parties — to use (musicians’) wording — to provide retirement security for the new hires.”
In another facet of the contract, the musicians will face no increase in the cost of their health benefits.
Overall, “What we got was a significant bump in our salary, and we maintained significant working conditions and our health insurance without any additional changes,” Lester said.
“What we didn’t get is the accommodation to new hires,” meaning winning retirement benefits for them that are similar to what the veterans have had.
“That is absolutely essential to the quality of the orchestra,” Lester added. “We have a year to explain to our trustees why that is so important. And explain it in an atmosphere that isn’t charged with a strike.”
Emanuel said in a statement, “I want to thank the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and the world-class musicians who make up the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for coming to the table and negotiating in good faith toward an agreement to end the strike. Today, the CSO musicians unanimously ratified a fiveyear contract negotiated at City Hall. This is a fair deal for the symphony and its musicians, and a great deal for the future of one of our city’s greatest cultural institutions.”