Musicians Labor Relations

Don Henley is turning up the heat in his bitter legal dispute with Geffen Records, charging that entertainment impresario David Geffen conspired with other powerful record corporations to blackball the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter.

Dancers performed the perennial holiday favorite "The Nutcracker" to a recorded score at Lincoln Center on Friday after musicians from the striking New York City Ballet orchestra failed to reach a contract settlement after hours of negotiations. The two sides were still talking after the performance started at 8 p.m., said Bill Dennison, an official with the union. "I want a refund," said ballet-goer Andrea Alonso of Engelwood Cliffs, N.J., moments before the curtain went up.

Dancers performed the perennial holiday favorite "The Nutcracker" to a recorded score at Lincoln Center on Friday after musicians from the striking New York City Ballet orchestra failed to reach a contract settlement after hours of negotiations. The two sides were still talking after the performance started at 8 p.m., said Bill Dennison, an official with the union. "I want a refund," said ballet-goer Andrea Alonso of Engelwood Cliffs, N.J., moments before the curtain went up.

Members of the New York City Ballet Orchestra went on strike Tuesday, forcing the cancellation of the evening's opening gala. The ballet's management announced the cancellation just as the performance was scheduled to start at Lincoln Center's State Theater, saying that it "deeply regrets the decision of its orchestra to institute a work stoppage."

Members of the Radio City Music Hall orchestra in New York City voted to authorize a strike if they do not settle on a new contract with the company that manages the famous theater, the musicians' union said. The orchestra has been working without a contract since May 15 and has been negotiating with Radio City Productions since September. Judy West, a spokeswoman for Local 802, said that without a contract a strike is likely before the end of the year.

The Mozart Camerata has averted an immediate threat of blacklisting by the Orange County Musicians Assn., Local No. 7., though the outcome of a dispute between the chamber orchestra and the union is still in question. At issue is a grievance filed by three musicians who say they were barred last month from a Camerata rehearsal. The musicians assert that they had oral agreements to play with the group for the full season.

All Eddie Arnold wanted to be from the day he left Valley High School was a musician, and he made it. He spent half a dozen years traveling with singer Lola Falana's band and the last half-dozen playing bass in the Tropicana Hotel for the famed Folies Bergere musical show. The last thing Arnold, 33, ever expected to be doing was walking the pavement around the Tropicana in 115-degree heat with a picket sign reading, "Honk If You Like Live Music."

The conservative Board of Supervisors led by Antonovich, Schabarum and Deane Dana seem content to spend more than $3 million in county funds for legal fees in an attempt to save their jobs instead of confronting the needs in this county. They are more concerned about protecting their gerrymandered seats on the board from the growing Latino community than they are (with) county problems.

Negotiators for the San Francisco Opera and its orchestra tentatively settled a labor dispute, and opera executives announced on Monday that if the settlement is ratified, the delayed season would open Saturday with "Rigoletto" at the War Memorial Opera House. The tentative settlement, reached late Sunday night, appears to be a victory for the management. If the pact is ratified by the opera board of the directors today and the musicians Wednesday, orchestra members will receive 4.

Members of the New York City Ballet Orchestra went on strike Tuesday, forcing the cancellation of the evening's opening gala. The ballet's management announced the cancellation just as the performance was scheduled to start at Lincoln Center's State Theater, saying that it "deeply regrets the decision of its orchestra to institute a work stoppage."

Members of the Radio City Music Hall orchestra in New York City voted to authorize a strike if they do not settle on a new contract with the company that manages the famous theater, the musicians' union said. The orchestra has been working without a contract since May 15 and has been negotiating with Radio City Productions since September. Judy West, a spokeswoman for Local 802, said that without a contract a strike is likely before the end of the year.

The Philadelphia Orchestra, one of the nation's Big Five, hits the centennial mark in two years. Its history is a list of firsts and top honors. It was the first to make an electrical recording (in 1925) and the first to play on the soundtrack of a feature film--"The Big Broadcast of 1937"--and this was three years before playing in Walt Disney's famous "Fantasia."

San Francisco Symphony musicians ratified a new contract Monday, ending a nine-week strike that forced cancellation of 48 concerts and could cost the organization millions of dollars. Rehearsals were scheduled to resume immediately. Members of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 6, voted 54-41 for the contract, which made concessions on pensions and wages but did not address concerns about scheduling of additional Sunday concerts.

Talks Saturday between San Francisco Symphony officials and striking players produced no results, according to Julia Inouye of the orchestra staff. The talks followed action Friday by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown to bring both sides together. No further talks are planned, Inouye said.

The nearly two-week run of "La Cage aux Folles," which closes today at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, was picketed by members of Professional Musicians Local 47. Union fliers distributed to theatergoers accused the producer, Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities, of asking orchestra members to take a 50% pay cut. Meanwhile, inside the theater, the Civic Light Opera's executive director, James Blackman, delivered sardonic pre-curtain remarks about the situation to his customers.

A complaint against the Los Angeles Rams was issued Wednesday by the National Labor Relations Board over the team's switch last summer from union to non-union musicians for home games. The complaint was to have been issued last week but was delayed to give the team further opportunity to settle its dispute with the Orange County Musicians' Assn. But no settlement was reached, and the team threatened to use tapes instead of live music, according to a union attorney.

There's harmony at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts again after striking orchestra musicians voted to accept a contract agreement Friday night. In a surprise vote, the 67 musicians also settled separate contract issues with the Washington Opera by a unanimous vote, ending a dispute that had forced the cancellation of the first two shows of its seven-show season. Kennedy Center musicians went on strike Sept. 1, after contract renewal talks broke down over work guarantees.

The Philadelphia Orchestra is on strike. Even though it is the orchestra's first walkout in 30 years, there is nothing particularly unusual about musicians taking to the picket lines. They do it all the time. Surveys about job satisfaction, such as one done at Harvard University a few years ago, have shown that members of American symphony orchestras are a famously unhappy lot, and contract negotiations tend to be disputatious.

After months of discord and accusations of unfair labor practices, Ventura County's newly merged symphony has finally struck a deal with the local musicians union to fill its 70 open seats. Under the deal signed Wednesday, New West Symphony will fill 40 chairs--without auditions--by Friday with musicians from the Conejo and Ventura County symphonies, which dissolved in the spring to form the new orchestra.