Musicians Reject Offer; Bankruptcy Mentioned

San Diego Symphony musicians overwhelmingly rejected a three-year contract proposal by the symphony association Thursday night, forcing management to consider reorganization of the 76-year-old orchestra under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Symphony President Herbert J. Solomon said Thursday that, if there is no agreement by today, Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings “might . . . be the only realistic alternative available” to the financially strapped orchestra.

Solomon told reporters at a press conference Thursday that he has called a special meeting of the board of directors for early next week to ponder the options facing the symphony. He said there are “a number of alternatives, options and possibilities,” but that it is “hard to find many pleasant alternatives.”

Musicians held an impromptu press conference Wednesday to announce their agreement in a straw vote to accept most of the symphony’s wage proposals. Musicians’ representatives said their decision to acquiesce was influenced by symphony Executive Director Wesley O. Brustad, who told them earlier that the orchestra faced the possibility of dissolving the orchestra through Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings if there were no agreement. (Under the Bankruptcy Code, Chapter 7 involves liquidation but Chapter 11 provides only protection from creditors while a reorganization occurs.)

Asked Thursday why Brustad had referred to dissolving the orchestra rather than reorganizing it, Solomon said that his executive director, “not being a lawyer,” may not have known the difference between the two proceedings.

Musicians said the Chapter 7 gaffe had no influence on Thursday evening’s 53-to-2 vote by orchestra members to reject the symphony offer (two members abstained). The action dashed hopes for a proposed spring series of concerts by the symphony. It also cast a shadow over the future of several hundred thousand dollars in symphony grants--money earmarked for concerts--that were suspended because of cancellation in November of the symphony’s winter season.

After the season cancellation, state, local and federal government funding sources suspended or canceled $400,000 in grants pending an agreement with the musicians. Season ticket holders also demanded another $400,000 in ticket refunds. The orchestra already has $900,000 in debts, Brustad said.

Solomon characterized the symphony’s financial status as “ominous.” He said the symphony is “current” on a schedule of payments to some creditors but does not have enough money to pay all of them.

Solomon and Brustad went to great pains to portray management as making good-faith proposals to the musicians. Brustad said he had moved the symphony board “half-way” toward an agreement with the musicians from its initial bargaining position.

Solomon said its “very substantial concessions (had) extended us to the very outward reaches of our limitations. To have gone beyond them would have been to . . . perpetuate the vicious cycle of financial disaster that has characterized the San Diego Symphony in the past.”

Brustad and Solomon accused the musicians of “misrepresentations.” Musicians said Wednesday they had agreed to “sweeping economic concessions” but balked at management’s proposals for artistic changes in the contract. To the contrary, Brustad said, instead of the musicians being forced to accept wage concessions, management had offered the players a “substantial” 25% increase in the weekly minimum scale over three years.

Musicians responded to Brustad’s claims by pointing out that, in terms of annual wage, only 20 players under the symphony proposal would receive an increase in the second and third years of the contract.

“The resolve of the orchestra is very firm,” musicians’ representative Lynn Johnson said. “If we have to work under these terms and conditions--that’s not an orchestra. We’ll wait and hope that management will be willing to negotiate.”