Musicians Drum Down O’Connor’s Arbitration Proposal

The fragile hope for a reconciliation between the San Diego Symphony management and orchestra members crumbled into acrimony Friday when the musicians rejected a proposal by Mayor Maureen O’Connor to submit to binding arbitration.

Hopes for the reconciliation received a boost Thursday when symphony board members voted to go along with O’Connor’s arbitration plan, which called for former UC San Diego Chancellor William McGill to appoint a commission to settle the labor dispute and take control of the symphony’s operations.

But the attorney for the musicians informed O’Connor’s office on Friday that the union refused to submit to the McGill commission, and the entire orchestra late Friday night voted unanimously to reject the idea of binding arbitration as a bad precedent because it would mean giving up their rights to “self-determination.”

Lynn Johnson, the regional representative of the American Federation of Musicians, said later at a press conference Friday that the rejection was based on principle.

“We cannot give up our rights to collective bargaining,” she said, adding that it would be “the first time that an orchestra in the United States has ever agreed to arbitration to settle a labor contract.”

The decision left the symphony and its musicians in the same deadlock that has lingered for at least four months and forced the 76-year-old institution to go dark for the winter season, and possibly forever. Symphony officials said Friday that they were “sad and disheartened” by the turn of events.

O’Connor, stung by the decision, blamed the musicians’ New York-based attorney for the collapse.

“I, as mayor, thought I did the best job I could,” O’Connor said. “I thought I had a consensus. And this young lady from New York called and talked with the musicians and it fell apart from there. All I can say is, we tried.

“I think she’s taking a look at it from a national perspective, what musicians are doing throughout the country. Yes, this is a different concept, but it’s also a symphony on the verge of bankruptcy.”

The musicians’ attorney, however, said she informed O’Connor’s office as early as last week that her clients would refuse to accept binding arbitration, and she accused the mayor of pressing on with the plan because it was a way to “package a situation and lose nothing politically in the process.”

“I’m dumbfounded by the mayor’s charge that I torpedoed an agreement to submit to binding operation,” attorney Liza Du Brul said in a telephone interview Friday evening. She said O’Connor was pushing a “grandiose plan” that led to false expectations.

The fallout from Friday’s development was confusion and distrust. O’Connor and others involved in the arbitration proposal said the symphony was dead, threatening the Summer Pops series at Mission Bay.

Yet musicians vowed to play on, and said they would hire a manager to launch their own series of summer concerts at an undetermined site.

“We’re not trying to put an end to things,” Gregory Berton, chairman of the musicians’ negotiating committee, said about the rejection of binding arbitration. “We don’t believe it’s the difference between the life and death of this symphony.”

The refusal was a sharp dip in the emotional roller coaster of events that began this week after O’Connor became personally involved in the symphony labor dispute.

Symphony management announced Monday that, after months of disagreement with orchestra members, it was severing ties with the musicians. Management had locked out the musicians in September after they rejected a new contract calling for 15% cuts in wages and other concessions in artistic decisions.

By Wednesday morning, O’Connor called both sides to her City Hall offices to make a pitch that McGill--also a former president of Columbia University--be allowed to appoint a commission to investigate symphony finances and settle the dispute with musicians. She wanted both sides to allow the McGill commission to decided the short-range and long-range revival of the symphony.

The idea of binding arbitration by an independent commission with wide-ranging powers was good for two reasons, said George Gildred, who helped O’Connor with the talks: Not only would it end the labor dispute, but it also would give potential donors enough confidence to continue supporting the symphony.

“You’ve got to dig into the whole history of what were the weaknesses, what were the strengths in the past, and come up with a lasting financial plan to come up with financial stability,” said Gildred, a prominent San Diego developer whose family once owned the Fox Theatre, now Symphony Hall.

“Once you have that in place, then donors are going to come forward. You are going to find new donors and also restore the confidence of former donors, which has to be shattered at this point.”

What transpired at those Wednesday meetings in the mayor’s suite, however, has now become a major sticking point. The signals given to O’Connor that her proposal was acceptable apparently stemmed from lack of communication between the musicians and their attorney.

O’Connor and her aide, Sal Giametta, said Friday that the musicians agreed to the idea of binding arbitration.

“When I talked to the musicians, they had no problem with McGill when they were here on Wednesday,” O’Connor said. “If they do have a problem, it arose after the meeting. . . . They agreed to the concept of the commission and they agreed to arbitration.”

Giametta added: “There’s no doubt in my mind and no doubt in the mayor’s mind that when they left here, they agreed to the concept of arbitration and the McGill commission and that we understood that they would have to go back and try to sell it to their membership.”

Musicians’ attorney Du Brul denied that the musicians ever gave O’Connor their word. She said the bargaining committee found itself in an “intimidating situation” and was browbeaten by mayoral aides to “say something positive” about O’Connor’s proposal.

“She mistook politeness for acquiescence,” said Du Brul, who added that she was unable to be present because she had to be in New York for personal reasons.

Even before Wednesday’s meeting, Du Brul--an independent attorney retained by the San Diego musicians--said the musicians had indicated they would not go along with binding arbitration. She said she told Giametta the week before that orchestra members were opposed to the plan.

“I spoke to an aide last week, early to midweek, and conveyed to him our clear-cut position on this issue, which hasn’t changed,” said Du Brul. “It is an absolute insult to the symphony musicians for the mayor to assert that the committee is not capable of acting for itself and did not act for itself.

“Collective bargaining is of the utmost importance to us because it is a way the musicians have a hand in their own lives and their own careers. It is part of self-determination. To submit to compulsory arbitration is to forsake that, and we believe it would set a pattern for us that we could, perhaps, never escape. That is an unacceptable situation for us.”

As a second factor, she said that union members were unhappy with the choice of McGill because he was “a constant opponent of unionization at Columbia.”

“If anyone is an imported New Yorker, it is Prof. McGill,” she said, adding that she lived in California until 1983.

Du Brul said that the two sides had been “within a hair’s breadth” of resolving their differences.

Wesley O. Brustad, the symphony’s executive director, on Friday disagreed with Du Brul’s claim.

“There are 30 or 40 items that continue to be a problem,” he said. Brustad said that, even if the musicians were to agree to the symphony’s last proposal, “Many members of the board felt that our ability to reach our contributed income (goals) far exceeded our ability.”

Berton said he was called by the mayor’s office on Wednesday and told to “be there” in an hour. He could not reach Du Brul to tell her of the meeting, and did not know or remember that she had already told the mayor’s office that binding arbitration was not an option.

Had he known of the earlier statements by Du Brul, “it would have made a difference,” Berton said. “They really wanted us to give some kind of positive response. But we had no authority to make any kind of decision. We did say it sounded good at the time, like a good idea.”

Giametta on Friday confirmed that he floated the idea of binding arbitration with Du Brul in the early conversation and the attorney said it would be “inappropriate.”

Yet O’Connor decided to push ahead with the proposal and was hopeful the musicians would accept.

“The mayor was putting her name on the line for an equitable solution,” he said. “We cannot believe that they were unwilling to abide by this.”

Giametta denied browbeating the musicians when they came face-to-face with O’Connor on Wednesday.

“Not at all,” he said. “I swear on whatever, not at all. I have had a very positive relationship with the musicians.”

O’Connor, who is leaving Sunday for a week of city business in Washington, said she’s through trying to put music back into Symphony Hall.

“I don’t mind putting my name on the line when it is in the best interests of the community,” said O’Connor. “And this was in the best interests of the community. The fact that it didn’t work, I don’t feel like I’ve failed.

“I feel the musicians have to face their own destiny and I don’t think they can use the argument now that the community or management didn’t want to come to the bargaining table because when you have management, agreeing to binding arbitration, which is normally a labor request, you know that management have gone more than their fair share.”