Negotiations

If effective, as in “achieving the desired results”, is the most important word in the question, the answer must be yes. What is not effective about advancing an agenda through the often emotion-laden and contentious process of collective bargaining and having that agenda codified in a collective bargaining agreement? If we examine the question purely in the light of “git ‘er done”, then the collective bargaining process certainly has proven effective for musicians.

However, the more interesting issue is the question behind the question: Is it in the orchestra’s best long-term business interest to have a group of employees who are not legally responsible for the financial health of the organization making de facto business decisions, other than negotiating wages and working conditions (which are also business decisions), because they can during the highly-charged atmosphere of the traditional bargaining process?

A Really, Really Simplistic Fictional Case
Orchestra Z, with a $5.75-million-dollar operating budget, serves a medium-sized mid-western community and environs. The Board and Management are competent enough, the Music Director is not a resident of the community, and the Musicians have aspirations to “go to the next level”. The budget usually balances, and the endowment stands at $10 million. Orchestra Z performs in a city facility, and lately there has been a downturn in ticket sales, so revenue projections are slipping.

It is time to renegotiate the contract. As a central issue, the Musicians propose adding four violins to the core for artistic purposes. Management would prefer to spend that money on upgrading the marketing and development departments at this time, because they believe internal capacity to produce revenue should precede fixed-cost growth. The discussions heat up. As trade-offs are made and a work stoppage is averted, the musicians succeed during the final hours of the talks in securing three violins as a permanent contingent of the orchestra.

The Management is now forced through the collective bargaining process to proceed in a financial direction which goes against their professional judgment of creating revenue capacity prior to incurring expense.

The Musicians who fought “like junkyard dogs” for the four violins have no responsibility to make sure the three violins are supported financially.

Is this a good way to make business decisions?
Not in my book, it isn’t.

Reflections
Truism: Every orchestra is different as a result of its history, environment, and budget size. What is a tremendous problem for larger-budget orchestras may be completely off the radar screen for smaller-budget orchestras, and vice-versa.

Disclosure: While I have been worked in larger-budget orchestras, my current responsibilities are to a smaller-budget orchestra, where the primary economic interest is compensation, so Art notwithstanding, the focus of this discussion is about money. An additional confession is that I am an unrepentant idealist who believes even the most intransigent groups of people can change given enough time and proper motivation.

So, since we are selling music to the community, we are in business, and an orchestra’s business decisions should be made by planning, analysis, and application of sound business principals, just as the music (I still hate “product”) is played according to the best performance practices available. If we make business decisions on the basis of the best long-term outcome for the orchestra rather than “what’s in it for me right now?”, we would have a healthier, more productive approach to the issue which really concerns the professional employees of orchestras which is “How can we be true to our artistic mission while maximizing revenue so we can all make more money?” We need to create an operating climate in our organizations in which it is possible for everyone to prosper as we provide music to the community.

I believe we should ponder this hard truth and consider how we can all participate in making our businesses as “profitable” as possible. We are an industry filled with creative people; we can come up with new ideas to make this happen.