CLASSICAL
Rahm Emanuel,
Last April, it looked as if the remainder of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s season would be canceled — and that the next one was in question.
The longest strike in CSO history had stretched seven weeks, with both management and labor having exchanged sharp words in public.
In what turned out to be the strike’s final days, however, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel stepped into the crossfire, called both sides to City Hall for negotiations and ended an acrimonious chapter in the orchestra’s long history.
No other development in Chicago’s classical music scene commanded as much attention locally and internationally, and no one did more to resolve the conflict than Emanuel.
Whether you loved or loathed Emanuel’s mayoralty, there’s no dispute among the parties involved that his contribution was critical to ending the walkout, which focused on pensions plans and salary.
“We were in a stalemate, and I think it was really helpful to have an independent mediator — a high-profile mediator,” says Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association President Jeff Alexander.
“I think he certainly was an important factor,” says CSO bassist Stephen Lester, who chaired the musicians’ negotiating committee. “He was a crucial factor in getting the settlement.”
So why did Emanuel decide to step in?
“The CSO is a great cultural institution for the city of Chicago, and you didn’t want to see the strike drag on,” says Emanuel.
“It had gotten to the point where (opposing sides) weren’t hearing each other. Even though they had a federal mediator, it needed somebody … to bridge differences that I thought were bridgeable.
“If I didn’t do it, it would just continue. And for the incoming next mayor, this would be 12th out of the top 10 things to do.”
But why did Emanuel wait until the seventh week to intervene?
“Because it wasn’t ready,” he says. “It’s like a wine. It was at that time ready to be uncorked.”
The day before negotiations began at City Hall, Emanuel asked each side for an executive summary of their positions, recalls Alexander.
Once Emanuel’s negotiating session began, “He didn’t have any papers with him — he was clearly fully briefed on the matters,” says Alexander.
Says CSO bassist/negotiator Lester, “I had the pleasure to work with him in sidebar caucuses a couple of times, so I was impressed by his knowledge of the situation, his knowledge of pensions. He said he negotiated many contracts in the city, and we understood and respected that.”
Though Emanuel acknowledges that “this was not my first negotiation, it was my first negotiation as a third party,” he says.
And he wasn’t sure how it would end well.
“It was a flip of the coin, a jump of the ball — could have gone either way,” says Emanuel. “It was no guarantee. … But it was worth the risk.”
Because Emanuel had been a lame duck since announcing in 2018 that he wasn’t running for reelection, one could argue that he didn’t have much to lose. He believes, however, that if negotiations had failed, “they would have blamed the mayor.”
At the same time, as outgoing mayor, his leverage clearly was limited.
“My chief of staff begged me not to do this,” says Emanuel. “He said: You don’t have the political clout anymore. The (landing) gears are down.”
Yet April 26 — the day both sides met in City Hall — proved to be the turning point.
“We started in the morning … and we were making progress for sure,” says CSOA president Alexander.
“And in the late afternoon (Emanuel) said: We really need to finish this up — I have to leave for Sabbath. We were very close. We all took that seriously. When he left us, we weren’t quite finished.
“He made some very heartwarming departing comments to all of us together, and the association and the union stayed for about another 90 minutes and finished things up.”
The next day, the musicians’ union ratified the contract, and the CSOA board approved it.
Where does Emanuel place this win among what he considers his achievements as mayor?
“I would put that in the Top 5 — ending a strike.”
For the 2019 Chicagoans of the Year, the Tribune asked each recipient the following questions about the decade of arts in Chicago:
Q: Looking back over the last decade, what do you think was the most important event that impacted the Chicago arts scene?
A: Eighty-two percent of our (school) kids now get arts and culture. We went from a third to 80-some percent. We were picking between music or math, and our kids can get both. I’d say the heads and tails of this is arts education in our schools is now seen as the gold standard.
Arts in the parks, through our Night Out in the Parks, is bringing free great art to our neighborhoods. The Chicago Architecture Biennial, arts education and Night Out in the Parks and all that moving into our neighborhoods, not just downtown.
If I could have two answers: I think what Ashley (Wheater) has done at Joffrey Ballet, specifically reinterpreting old works anew, is one of the most significant things that has happened, and making Joffrey a center of attention internationally.
Q: Looking ahead to 2020, what is the most critical issue that needs to be addressed for Chicago arts? And what person or institutions are best equipped now to have an impact on this issue?
A: Whether Night Out in the Parks, or the 50 for 50 (Campaign) where we did sculpture in every ward or arts education — stay with that spirit.
City government can do that.