Labor Showdown, 21st Century-Style

If you follow the classical music business closely, you've likely read already that the vaunted Cleveland Orchestra, which many consider to be America's best symphony, is on the verge of going on strike. The musicians have been working without a contract for six months, and have decided that continuing to "play and talk" will not result in any change in their managers' insistence on a hefty pay cut, so they're willing to risk the drastic and always publicly unpopular step of refusing to perform.

Sarah and I have generally avoided commenting on specific orchestral labor actions here, and this one, if it comes to pass (and everyone is hoping it doesn't,) will be no different. Obviously, as a musician (and one who was trained in large part by a Cleveland Orchestra player,) I have a dog in this fight, but a blog hosted on the official website of my orchestra isn't the place for me to be advocating or accusing.

However, as the rhetoric in Cleveland has heated up, it's worth noting how different such situations have become in the Internet Age. In past eras, musicians considering a work stoppage were up against very long odds in terms of getting their message out. The orchestra management would have the use of its professional PR department to make its voice heard, and the existing relationships between local journalists and that office would likely trump any feeble attempt by the musicians (who, as a group, do not tend to be terribly PR-savvy) to argue their case before the court of public opinion.

Now, though, everything's changed, and the Cleveland musicians have been availing themselves of everything from social networking sites to YouTube videos to make themselves heard very, very loudly, not only in Cleveland, but around the music world. A Facebook page has been set up and has already garnered over 1000 fans. And just this afternoon, the musicians posted a very professional-looking video to YouTube, asking very directly whether their orchestra's management still believes in the core values outlined in the organization's mission statement. The video concludes with a tagline about the difference between "having an orchestra in Cleveland, and having The Cleveland Orchestra." It's a powerful statement, made possible only by the easy access to technology that didn't even exist ten years ago, and that we take for granted today.



The impact of such high-tech efforts on an orchestral labor dispute won't be known for a while, simply because this is the first time in the Facebook/YouTube/Twitter era that one of America's top five orchestras (always a highly subjective list, of course, but I don't know anyone who wouldn't have Cleveland on it) might be walking the picket line. It's possible that the tide of public opinion will be as anti-union as it almost always seems to be during strikes in America, and it's also possible that such PR efforts don't really have a lot to do with how most work stoppages are eventually resolved.

But the opposite is possible, too. And I've written before that I've never seen a decidedly blue-collar, hardscrabble, dressed-down city take more pride in a local arts institution than Cleveland takes in its orchestra. That kind of popular interest in what ordinary folks see as an institution their community cannot do without can sometimes lead to remarkable groundswells. And in 2010, those groundswells are as likely as not to begin online.

As I said at the top, if the worst happens in Cleveland this week (and people I've talked to seem to think it will,) I'll be holding my tongue here on the blog. But you can probably guess which side I'll be rooting for.

Late addendum, added January 19: The Cleveland Orchestra went on strike Monday morning, but by this afternoon, media sources were reporting that a tentative settlement had been reached. "Tentative" in the orchestra business means that the musicians' negotiating team has agreed to recommend that the entire membership vote to approve the deal on the table. It would be very, very unusual for the orchestra to reject a deal that its elected negotiators are recommending, so this likely is the end of the work stoppage.

Although Monday was technically a day off for the orchestra, the strike did lead to the postponement of a weeklong residency at Indiana University. However, Cleveland's upcoming three-week residency in Miami, which has been a major cash cow for the orchestra in recent years, will reportedly go on as scheduled, pending the ratification of the new contract.

Further update: The full orchestra has now ratified the new contract, which runs through the 2011-12 season.