The ASO Lock-Out: A Crisis of Trust

Letter from Jon Gunnemann (#153) ... in response to the 2012 Lockout.

Ms. Virginia Hepner

President and Chief Executive Officer

Woodruff Arts Center

Dear Ms. Hepner:

I write to you as a long-time supporter of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Woodruff Arts Center, at several levels:  My wife and I have been members of the High Museum of Art for more than two decades; we make a modest annual gift to the Alliance Theater and attend plays every year; we have been Subscribers to the ASO for three decades and Patrons for almost two decades; and I have sung with the ASO Chorus for more than twenty years. 

Like many in the Chorus—and certainly like many Subscribers and Patrons—we have been deeply distressed by the WAC’s lockout of the ASO musicians.  As the lockout continues, our distress is turning into anger and a profound distrust of the WAC Board and the ASO administrative leadership.  I am keenly aware that there is always more than one side to a story in situations of conflict; I do not pretend to know all of the details of the negotiations between the WAC and the ASO musicians; like most reasonable people I am aware that no institution can survive if it is running annual deficits of five million dollars; and like anyone who reads the newspapers I know that symphony orchestras across the country—indeed, all of our important cultural institutions—are threatened by decreasing financial support.  Finding ways to cut costs is a painful process, and those of us who support the arts and music in Atlanta are beneficiaries of the work you and the WAC board have done on our behalf. But you are also trustees of the funds you receive from us, both through subscription tickets and annual contributions, and the lockout is, for us, a violation of the trust we have placed in you.  It is not in keeping with our understanding of what the ASO is, and not in keeping with our understanding of how we can best work together to weather difficult times. 

A lockout transforms an already difficult process of negotiation into something different:  It is an act of coercion, essentially ending negotiations and placing the immediate pain of cost-cutting on one group, the ASO musicians.  Lockouts are coercive, virtually punitive, because the workers (in this case, professional musicians of the highest caliber) have their livelihoods at stake, but no one the Symphony board or on the WAC board have their livelihoods at stake.  Because livelihood is at stake, some states in the U.S. have laws requiring businesses to pay health and other benefits during a lockout, recognizing the vulnerability of those who depend on their jobs for fundamental human needs.  Georgia clearly does not have such a law; and apparently the WAC has not had the humanity to pay at least for essential benefits for the musicians.  (Note:  I have heard conflicting accounts of the health care coverage provided for the ASO Musicians during the lockout.  It is important in situations like this to be certain about any factual claims.  If I misstated the facts on this issue in my previous e-mail, I regret doing so.  It would not, however, affect the substance of my argument.)

Many in the Chorus have written to you, concerned that the next concert season is endangered, and many have also written to express deep concern that the future of the crown jewel of Atlanta’s cultural life, the Atlanta Symphony (to which the ASOC’s volunteer labor adds some luster) is threatened.  I share these concerns.  But something else, trust, has been seriously damaged, and on several levels.  As a member of the Chorus, it was demeaning to be told that, yes, contract negotiations were difficult, but that we should not worry, “We are all one family,” and no matter what we heard, “negotiations are ongoing,” just a week before the lockout.  That does not build trust.  As patrons and subscribers, my wife and I feel betrayed by the coercive pressure placed on players we admire immensely.  That sense was heightened when we listened to a moving and spirited concert by the ASO players last Thursday evening in a high school auditorium, and wrote a check to help pay for health insurance.

In difficult economic times, we hope for creative leadership.  In this specific situation, creative leadership would entail, in my mind, several things:  It would require a plan, made public, that showed that the needed cutting of costs was being shared equitably among all levels of the Symphony and the WAC.  Such a plan should be part of a larger plan for using the crisis as a basis for fund-raising and for managing future costs.  It should include publicity about the role the ASO plays in our community, in our schools, and more.  Important questions:  How much pressure/persuasion has been exercised to get the AJC to cover ASO and other arts events? How can the crisis be used to cultivate new sources of support?  How can we think together about securing the future of our beloved orchestra?  We have heard nothing of this kind from the WAC.  And I have to say that, for the first time, I find myself as a (modest) patron of the WAC wanting a complete accounting of expenditures, salaries, and bonuses for management and leadership.  From our perspective, you are asking the ASO musicians to bear a punitive burden without showing that you have worked for any alternative ways to handle the shortfall.  As trustees for non-profit cultural institution, you do not have shareholders to whom you are accountable and to whom you must make annual reports.  But you do have subscribers and donors to whom you owe an account of where we are, and how you plan, with our help and the help of others, to move into the future.

Are we going to work together, make music together?  That requires trust.  Our trust has been seriously damaged.  I implore you and the Board to work to restore trust and to secure the future and artistic integrity of the Symphony. 

Respectfully,

Jon P. Gunnemann

Member, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus; Patron; Subscriber

Professor of Social Ethics Emeritus

Emory University

Cc:  Larry Gellerstedt, III, Chair, Woodruff Arts Center Executive Board

       James Abrahamson, Chair, ASO Board of Directors

       Stanley E. Romanstein, President, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra