From The Saporta Report, Oct. 18, 2012:

"Anderson did however announce another major initiative he has agreed to co-chair with Paul Garcia, the CEO of Global Payments. Both of them will head up an effort to raise money for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra so it won’t continue to face an annual deficit.


Garcia said the goal is to have a three-year campaign that would raise between $3 million and $3.5 million a year to put the ASO on a sound financial footing. The symphony has been losing about $5 million a year for the past several years, and a new contract with musicians is resulting in an annual savings of about $2.4 million a year."

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By Tom Baxter

Last week two lockouts came to an end. While there was a sense of relief in both cases, the two episodes ended very differently.

The National Football League officials’ lockout concluded with what must be the first standing ovation in the history of professional sports saluting not the players but the refs, as the completely vindicated regular NFL officials took the field for last Thursday night’s Cleveland Browns-Baltimore Ravens game.


Read more in SaportaReport

Atlanta, GA, September 26, 2012:  

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players Association (ASOPA) announced that the musicians voted to accept a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for the term of September 23, 2012 –  September 6, 2014.

In an unprecedented and extremely painful move designed to keep the music going, ASOPA agreed to every dollar in concessions that the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) and ASO management have demanded since the lockout began on August 25.  In the interest of continuing to bring music to the community and opening the season on time, ASOPA has accepted $5.2 million in concessions over a brief two-year agreement. 

The concessions were made against the backdrop of ASO board chair Jim Abrahamson’s claim that the ASO is “on the brink of extinction.”  Despite its executives’ dire assessment, the only ASO gesture toward sharing the financial pain is an agreement that CEO Stanley Romanstein, his second in command Donald F. Fox (whose salaries alone were $314,000 and $291,000, respectively, according to the most recent IRS documents filed by the ASO) and three other ASO  managers  will merely have their aggregate pay cut by 6%.  No staff running ASO subsidiaries, including Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, will be affected.  The musicians had proposed that all staff earning the equivalent of their base salary and above share equally in the musicians’ sacrifices, which would have yielded exponentially greater savings.

Those charged with overseeing the ASO have done historic damage to the future of the Orchestra by insisting on an arbitrary “musicians’ share” of $5.2 million. They have set the ASO back over 31 years in work weeks for the musicians and over 10 years in musicians’ compensation, not even taking inflation into account. This will make it all the more challenging to retain and continue to attract the talent that has brought international acclaim and national prominence to Atlanta’s Grammy award-winning ensemble.

The musicians’ costs were a mere 28% of the total ASO budget in recent years, a figure which will now drop to 24%. Yet the musicians will now produce the vast majority of the savings demanded by the ASO and the WAC, absorbing 17% and 14% individual pay cuts in the two years of the agreement. The number of musicians will drop from 95 to 88, a figure that is almost eclipsed by the current ASO administrative staff of 74. The season will be reduced from 52  to 41 weeks in 2012-13 and 42 weeks in 2013-14. The musicians also agreed to shoulder part of their health insurance premiums, and to increased flexibility in working conditions, allowing ASO management to utilize the orchestra in smaller ensembles simultaneously.

When the ASO was last the size and season length it is being reduced to now, the administrative staff was smaller than 15.  The musicians are not, and have never been, the cause of financial problems at the ASO, and in light of these agonizing cuts cannot be cited as such in the future. Their world-class performance is in stark contrast to that of the ASO’s leadership, both current and past. Management must be held accountable for under-performance at nearly every level for the past decade. For example, the operations of the ASO’s expensive summer venues, Chastain Park and Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre (where the musicians will hardly play in the future) have repeatedly failed to meet revenue projections. These failures account for a huge proportion of the ASO’s recent deficits.  The ASO and WAC boards and the public must demand serious results from management -- results that will begin rebuilding the ASO to major-league status.

The musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra have agreed to these deep concessions for one reason alone, and that is to do what they do best: continue to play great music for their public at an extraordinarily high level.  They hope you will join them in support and recognition of this sacrifice by attending upcoming concerts, donating generously, and recognizing that the people on stage are the assets that must be preserved.

www.ATLsymphonymusicians.com

Facebook: ATLSymphonyMusicians

Twitter: @ATLSymMusicians

Atlanta, GA, September 5, 2012: ASO CEO Stanley Romanstein mischaracterizes the musicians’ September 4 press release as “erroneously seek[ing] to drive a wedge between the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) Board and the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) Governing Board,” which he further asserts “have been united” in their demands of the musicians. Romanstein’s misstatement actually illustrates why it was important for the musicians honestly to explain what has transpired in negotiations with the ASO since August 24. The e-mail messages appended to this statement speak for themselves in addressing Mr. Romanstein’s attempt to reinterpret that reality. Not only did ASO top management express their appreciation for the musicians’ agreement with their proposal of $4 million in concessions over two years, but they promptly and openly celebrated reaching an agreement with their administrative staff.

His condescending accusation that “ASOPA representatives continue to oversimplify the complexity of the ASO’s annual budget and deficit to suit their argument” reflects more – and poorly -- on accuser Romanstein than on the musicians. In an article in the August 9, 2012 edition of the AJC, ASO management made these same tired claims: "Compensation for the musicians totals $12.5 million against the $45 million budget," and "Musician salaries have gone up by 23% since 2006, a period in which staff salaries declined 1.7%, according to management."

Unfortunately for the truth, the $12.5 million figure for musician compensation deceptively quoted by ASO management is the figure for budgeted musician compensation for FY 2012, not actual compensation. In fact, the total musician compensation line item in the ASO’s budget comes in consistently under budget, year after year. According to July 24, 2012 ASO Finance Committee documents, the actual FY 2012 amount for total musician compensation was actually $11.7 million, almost $800,000 under budget for the year just completed. [Sources: ASO Finance Committee documents and/or official data supplied to ASOPA by ASO management in the course of negotiations.]

The raw, uninterpreted numbers don't lie. According to ASO management's own numbers reported to ASOPA during the current negotiation, the increase in Total Musician Compensation between 2006 and 2012 was actually only 16%, barely above the inflation rate of approximately 14% during that period. And that includes quickly rising health insurance premiums.

Actual Total Musician Compensation in FY 2006 = $10,133,510 Actual Total Musician Compensation in FY 2012 = $11,778,444 (Total Musician Compensation Budget Line for FY 2012 = $12,555,900)

The raw numbers on actual ASO administrative staff compensation also paint a very different picture from the ASO's claim of a 1.7% decrease in staff salaries. Depending on a number of variables, almost any number from 0% to 70% can be teased out of the staff compensation numbers reported to ASOPA by ASO management.

These variables include: --Allocations of management salaries to the Symphony Center project up until it was dropped; --Whether or not salaries relating to Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre are included; --Various ways of allocating staff headcount numbers; --The fact that as many as 5 employees who were previously included in ASO payroll figures are now on the WAC payroll instead, resulting in lower ASO staff compensation numbers.

Here is a representative calculation of ASO Staff Compensation from 2006-2012, derived from ASO management’s own numbers, and leaving out Symphony Center and Verizon Amphitheatre compensation:

Actual Staff Compensation in FY 2006 was $4,013,628 (not including over $950,000 allocated to management of the abandoned Symphony Center project, including large amounts allocated to former CEO Allison Vulgamore, CFO Donald F. Fox and others).

Actual Staff Compensation in FY 2012 was $6,000,155 (not including over $860,000 for management of Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre).

Again, the raw numbers don't lie. Total ASO Staff Compensation increased by 49.5% from 2006 to 2012.

The ASO’s deceptive description contrasting its offer and musician vs. administrator compensation misleads in many ways. It totally ignores the fact that all ASO musicians are among the very top musicians in the nation on their instruments, which they must provide at their own expense. Yet under the WAC’s demands the ASO will fall from 14th to 17th among America’s premier 18 American orchestras – a ranking that could not be stretched to characterize itself as overpaid, as Romanstein implies.

Going on to assert that “the musicians allowed their contract to expire on August 25, despite an offer,” that they “are now inactive employees, and therefore ineligible for benefits” couches deliberate bullying in administrator talk. The truth is that there was a clear agreement to continue to negotiate on August 25th, the communication to substantiate which is provided below.

Finally, Romanstein further falsely claims that the ASO “presented the Musicians’ Union with [its] last, best, and final offer — they have yet to respond.” It was to Romanstein that the musicians made a full proposal at the conclusion of the negotiations meeting on August 25, which included the sought after and delivered $4 million in concessions over two years that Romanstein had requested. The complete proposal document can be made available for fact- checking.

-----------------------------

----Original Message----- From: Stanley Romanstein [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2012 3:13 PM To: Daniel Laufer Subject: Media

Danny,

Let's try this as a starting point:

While the current contract between the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Federation of Musicians has expired, both parties are continuing to work towards a solution. Negotiations are ongoing. We will gladly make comments to the media once we have reached an agreement.

Thanks, Danny. Stanley

Stanley E. Romanstein, Ph.D. President Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 1280 Peachtree Street NE Suite 4074

Atlanta, GA 30309 404/733-4906 Sent from my iPad, which sometimes auto fills in ways that create strange syntax.

-----Original Message----- From: Virginia A. Hepner [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2012 4:54 PM To: [email protected]; Stanley Romanstein Subject: Media blackout agreement

Danny and Stanley, I support your agreement on a media blackout as you continue negotiations. Thanks to you both for your leadership to find a solution.

Virginia

Virginia Hepner President & CEO Woodruff Arts Center 404-550-3131

------------------------------------

From: Stanley Romanstein [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, August 24, 2012 4:35 PM To: Daniel Laufer Subject: Fwd: draft EC memo

Stanley E. Romanstein, Ph.D. President Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 1280 Peachtree Street NE Suite 4074

Atlanta, GA 30309 404/733-4906 Sent from my iPad, which sometimes auto fills in ways that create strange syntax.

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Abrahamson, Jim" <[email protected]> Date: August 24, 2012 15:57:29 EDT To: Stanley Romanstein <[email protected]> Subject: RE: draft EC memo

Good idea, pls forward to him, thanks

Jim Abrahamson

Chief Executive Officer

Office: 703.387.3334 Fax: 703.842.8425 Email: [email protected] Web: www.interstatehotels.com

Our Experience. Your Success. ® 4501 N. Fairfax Dr. Arlington, VA 22203
------------------------------------
From: Stanley Romanstein [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, August 24, 2012 3:56 PM To: Abrahamson, Jim Cc: Karole F. Lloyd; Johnson, Ben; Abrahamson, Jim

Subject: Re: draft EC memo I would suggest, just to be safe, that we ask Tom Kilpatrick to review this prior to our sending it.

I want to be sure that we do not inadvertently cross any legal trip wires.

Stanley E. Romanstein, Ph.D. President Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 1280 Peachtree Street NE Suite 4074

Atlanta, GA 30309 404/733-4906

Sent from my iPad, which sometimes auto fills in ways that create strange syntax. On Aug 24, 2012, at 15:50, "Abrahamson, Jim" <[email protected]> wrote:

Stanley, Ben and Karole, Here is a draft note to the ASO EC......Pls provide any comments or suggestions....thanks, Jim

To the ASO Executive Committee:

Thank you for joining our call this morning and voicing your support for Stanley and the ASO management bargaining team. I do not think anyone expected a little over two weeks ago at our Board meeting that we would be down to a $600K gap on August 24th. However, while the gap has been substantially reduced, after numerous calls and meetings today, the WAC Governing Board has made the final decision that the “best and final offer” due to the musicians Saturday morning can be no less than the $2.6M in concessions presented in our last offer. As you know, the WAC signs the union agreement so they do have the last word in these matters. They are fully prepared for a work stoppage.

With regard to the points raised on our call earlier today.....I have spoken with Doug and Stanley has been in communication with Virginia. Here is a summary of their comments and decision:

1. While the support of the ASO Executive Cmte would be preferred, the final decision lies with the WAC Governing Board. Due to representations made to investors and key donors as well as the rating agencies, we must achieve and balanced budget and we require that half of the $5M gap comes from the contract with the musicians.

2. The alternative solution was crafted this morning by the ASO was reviewed by Howard Finesand and Virginia Hepner. After their meeting, they reviewed with Doug H and Larry G and that option was rejected as the union concession was still less than the $2.6M that they are requiring.

3. With regard to negative PR, they feel that the ASO and the WAC are sufficiently prepared and ready to deal with this matter. They consider the risk of not achieving a balanced budget is far greater than any negative PR. This applies to considering the implication to fundraising, ticket sales and the negative impact to other divisions of the WAC.

4. Therefore WAC Governing Board has decided that there is no need for an extension to further internally discuss options or PR implications, the senior team at the WAC Governing Board has reviewed the matter and has made a final decision.

The ASO will deliver its final offer tomorrow morning, we expect it to be rejected and there will be a work stoppage at midnight tomorrow. While we are disappointed that we could not find a path to a negotiated solution, we are still at the point that we thought we would be two weeks ago and the team is making plans to deal with the impact of the work stoppage. Therefore we will redirect our energies in that direction, continue to update and execute on our PR plan and determine next steps on negotiations.

Please advise if you have any questions or comments. Jim Abrahamson

Atlanta, GA, September 4, 2012:  On August 24, in an unprecedented effort to reach agreement on terms of a new collective bargaining agreement, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players Committee (ASOPA) offered very deep cuts in the Orchestra to the Atlanta Symphony Management negotiating team and the ASO Board. The $4 million in concessions offered by the 88 current Musicians of the ASO would be combined with parallel income cuts for those on the approximately 75-member ASO administrative staff who are paid at least the minimum salary of ASO musicians.  

ASO negotiators and staff, together with ASO board members, applauded with appreciation the musicians’ enormous offer of concessions, expressing privately that musicians have given enough - that the musicians should hold firm while an agreement was worked out with others. They also asked ASOPA to avoid talking with the press or even releasing full details of the talks to the Orchestra musicians, a request with which ASOPA agreed and has cooperated fully. Meanwhile, the WAC cancelled the musicians’ August 31 paychecks, as well as their health, dental, and disability insurance. 

Despite behind-the-scenes efforts by ASO Board and community leaders in communication with the WAC Executive Board, many frustrated ASO board members and staff now stand beside ASO musicians in dismay at the WAC Executive Board’s refusal to allow any compromise. 

As informal discussions continued into last week about how to close the dramatically reduced gap between the musicians’ and ASO’s proposals, an ASO Executive Board Committee member communicated the reaction of the Woodruff Arts Center Executive Board to the progress in an e-mail message shared with musicians by ASO CEO Stanley Romanstein.  “…[W]hile the gap has been substantially reduced, … the WAC Governing Board has made the final decision that the ‘best and final offer’… can be no less than the $2.6M in concessions presented in our last offer. As you know, the WAC signs the union agreement so they do have the last word in these matters. They are fully prepared for a work stoppage”. 

The message goes on to say that “while the support of the ASO Executive Cmte would be preferred, the final decision lies with the WAC Governing Board. Due to representations made to investors and key donors as well as the rating agencies, we must achieve and balanced budget and we require that half of the $5M gap comes from the contract with the musicians.” Acknowledging an “alternative solution…crafted…by the ASO [that] was reviewed by [WAC Executive Board members and staff]…that option was rejected as the union concession was still less than the $2.6M that they are requiring.” 

The e-mail added: “With regard to negative PR, they feel that the ASO and the WAC are sufficiently prepared and ready to deal with this matter. They consider the risk of not achieving a balanced budget is far greater than any negative PR. This applies to considering the implication to fundraising, ticket sales and the negative impact to other divisions of the WAC. Therefore WAC Governing Board has decided that there is no need for an extension to further internally discuss options or PR implications, the senior team at the WAC Governing Board has reviewed the matter and has made a final decision.” 

The communication ends with the assertion that “the team is making plans to deal with the impact of the work stoppage. Therefore we will redirect our energies in that direction, continue to update and execute on our PR plan and determine next steps on negotiations.” 

The WAC’s assertion that there is a $5 million budget gap misstates the facts: According to the ASO’s own budget documents, the deficit for Fiscal Year 2012 was $2.7 million, and a $1.5 million deficit is budgeted for Fiscal Year 2013. The Musicians have offered $2 million in concessions for each of the 2012-13 and 2013-14 contract years. Additional administrative staff cuts that the parties have agreed to would further bridge the gap, as would aggressive initiatives to review all costs and expenditures of the ASO and its subsidiary entities, Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre  and SD&A Teleservices, to reduce waste and find other savings. Yet, somehow finding that half of the made-up $5 million gap equals $2.6 million, the WAC punitively insists that the musicians alone – the costs of whom comprise only 28% of the ASO budget -- bear the entire budget burden.

Most arts executives and boards across the nation realize that for a non-profit to deeply cut and demean its primary product is not effective either for fundraising or fulfillment of its mission to the community. Community leaders and the musicians wonder when the ASO as an institution will be able to chart its own destiny, in light of the clear evidence that the WAC cares only about penalizing the musicians, regardless of how much damage is done to the award-winning legacies of ASO artistic leaders Robert Shaw, Yoel Levi, Robert Spano and Donald Runnicles.

The Musicians’ reality is that:

• As of August 26th, ASO musicians have been without any pay or benefits, also known as being locked out. 
• On August 31, health, dental, and disability insurance policies for all musicians, several of whom are battling cancer and other debilitating health crises, have also been cancelled by the WAC as threatened. This is contrary to Stanley Romanstein’s denial of that fact reported in the August 26 edition of the AJC:  “The musicians — who are full-time employees — had feared that if a deal was not made, they would be locked out without pay and health benefits. ASO president Stanley Romanstein has denied that, but in a letter to the musicians from executive vice president for business operations Donald Fox, he indicated that they had no authority to continue benefits beyond Aug. 25.” 
• All musicians’ access cards to Symphony Hall and parking decks have been deactivated. 
• Extra off-duty police have been hired at an undisclosed cost to patrol the WAC campus, creating the armed camp effect apparently sought by the WAC, despite no statements, threats or actions by ASO musicians that would necessitate such tactics and expense.
• All scheduled work for the Orchestra through September 24 has been canceled.
• The WAC Executive Board's actions threaten the ASO and the WAC itself, especially coming at a time when the WAC admits that the ASO budget gap is so close to being bridged. Their insistence on $2.6 million in cuts to the musicians alone, regardless of any other factors, certainly implies a misplaced priority of budgeting over mission, and suggests that they do not have in mind the best interests of the Atlanta Symphony, the communities it serves, or Atlanta itself, whose world-wide reputation the ASO enhances.  

###

Contact: Colin Williams 
(404) 275-4997 
[email protected]
Or 
Daniel Laufer
[email protected]
www.ATLsymphonymusicians.com
Facebook: ATLSymphonyMusicians
Twitter: @ATLSymphonyMusicians

It's a blue Christmas for ASO in flap over holiday programming
By Bo Emerson 

For the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, it never rains but it pours.

On top of money troubles and bitter ongoing contract negotiations, the ASO has provoked a nasty public backlash when it was reported that the orchestra disinvited choruses from Lassiter and Walton high schools from the ASO's holiday programs because the choirs weren't "diverse enough."


Read more.

By Susan Mittleman

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra faces an annual budget shortfall of 5-million-dollars. At this rate, that projects to an accumulated deficit of nearly 20-million-dollars by the end of the 2013 fiscal year.  

As annual expenses outrun the annual budget, ASO President and CEO Stanley Romanstein says they’ve asked their staff, their board, and their audiences to make concessions and now, they’re asking their musicians.  


Read more
http://www.pba.org/post/aso-musicians-offer-their-latest-budget-proposal

By Katherine Brooks

Facing debt that could equal $20 million by 2013, musicians and management staff from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra met yesterday in hopes of reaching an agreement over potential pay cuts for the organization.

In a current proposal offered by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players' Association, the musicians have offered to cut their compensation by 11 percent. But their sacrifice comes with a caveat: They want the orchestra's senior management staff to take an equal pay cut.


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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/16/atlanta-symphony-orchestra-pay-cuts_n_1790177.html