As the Musicians of the San Antonio Symphony’s strike ground into its sixth month, members rallied in front of the Tobin Center on Saturday and silently picketed the home of the chairwoman of the orchestra’s managing body the following day.
During speeches at the Tobin Center gathering, Democratic congressional candidates Greg Casar and Jessica Cisneros, Democratic Bexar County judge candidates Peter Sakai and Ina Minjarez, and city council members Terri Castillo and Jalen McKee-Rodriguez called for fair wages and benefits for the musicians. Former San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger also delivered a written message of support.
“Either our leadership must change their thinking or we must change our leadership,” MOSAS Negotiating Committee Chair Mary Ellen Goree said during her address to the crowd. “San Antonio wants and deserves a full-sized, full-time, fully professional orchestra. San Antonio has the resources to support such an orchestra. But destruction is easy, restoration is difficult, and San Antonio teeters at this moment on the very brink of losing its orchestra.”
In September, the orchestra’s managing entity, the Symphony Society, proposed slashing the 72-member, full-time orchestra to 42 members, reducing pay across the board and jettisoning four unfilled positions. The remaining 26 members would become part-timers without benefits.
Management said the organization’s deep financial woes warrant the drastic action. However, the musicians argue that the Symphony Society should step up fundraising efforts rather than decimate the orchestra, which has already lost members amid the strike.
Both the Symphony Society and MOSAS have remained at an impasse since the offer. Management ended the musicians’ healthcare benefits effective November 1, a move the union described as retaliatory and personal.
A new meeting is being scheduled in federal mediation, according to a statement from Symphony Society.
Sunday’s afternoon silent protest in front of Symphony Society Chair Kathleen Weir Vale’s Monte Vista home was a more subdued affair with roughly a dozen musicians picketing silently on the sidewalk.
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This article appears in Mar 23 – Apr 5, 2022.
