New Orchestra May Be Hired to Open Season : Labor: Contract negotiations between Ventura County Symphony Assn. and union are stalled. Board fears a strike.

Worried about the threat of a last-minute strike by its musicians, the Ventura County Symphony Assn. is considering hiring a touring foreign orchestra to perform its first concert.

“There are plenty of foreign orchestras that are either in the state or in the Los Angeles area around that time,” said symphony board President Felice Ginsberg.

“That’s always an option,” she said. “But that doesn’t accomplish anything. All that does is add to the stalling.”

Symphony attorney Michael A. Robbins said orchestra management has already contacted large agencies that book dozens of touring musical groups. But he said no agreements have been signed.

The symphony is scheduled to open its subscription season Oct. 8 in the Oxnard Civic Auditorium with a program titled “The Russian Masters.”

Negotiations between the musicians’ union and the symphony board have grown increasingly tense since they began in mid-July. Now each side accuses the other of intentionally stalling the process and refusing to budge on the biggest issues--tenure and wages.

“This is one of the most blatant cases of bargaining in bad faith that I have ever seen,” said Lynn Johnson, a representative of the American Federation of Musicians and leader of the local union’s bargaining team.

Johnson said a letter sent in June to orchestra members raised serious questions about management’s sincerity in bargaining. The letter, signed by Executive Director Karine Beesley, said the symphony’s board would consider canceling the entire season if an agreement was not reached by July 31.

“They will not open the season under threat of strike,” Beesley wrote.

Johnson said the hiring of an outside group to play the symphony’s first concert would do little to speed up negotiations.

“I have no way of knowing if it’s a ploy, a bluff, a not-very-bright idea or something they really intend to do,” she said.

Moreover, Johnson questioned whether the symphony association could legally hire foreign musicians without the approval of the national musicians’ union.

The American Federation of Musicians, she said, “will take all legal actions within its power to see to it that it doesn’t happen.”

Other symphony officials said they had never heard of a substitute group being hired because of a labor dispute.

Kris Saslow, executive director of the Assn. of California Symphony Orchestras, said managers and musicians typically settle their differences, continue without a contract or cancel the season.

“These musicians are still part of the organization,” she said. “You have to deal with it one way or the other.”

The symphony board’s Ginsberg said Ventura County Symphony directors began considering the idea of hiring an outside group to avoid canceling the first concert, or the entire season, if an agreement is not reached with the union.

“My first responsibility is to our subscribers,” she said.

She said hiring a group already on tour might in fact prove cheaper than hiring the symphony’s own musicians.

“If you’re only paying for a one-time thing, you’re not paying for use of an auditorium four times for rehearsal and use of a stage manager,” she said.

The symphony’s board of directors meets in two weeks. A decision about the first concert will probably be made then, based on the progress of negotiations in the next 10 days, Ginsberg said.

Despite their differences, union and symphony officials say they want the season to proceed as planned and would be willing to go on with the season even if a final version of a contract is not yet signed.

“Hopefully, we’ll be back at the table and get this thing done,” said Steve Thiroux, the orchestra’s principal bassoonist and a union representative.