Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter on Friday informed the National Symphony Orchestra’s 96 musicians that they won’t be paid after April 3 despite receiving a $25 million bailout from the federal government amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to the union that represents the musicians.
The one-week notice told musicians that they would not be paid again until the center reopens for business and that they would lose their health care benefits if it remained closed by the end of May, ABC News reported.
The notice came just hours after President Trump signed a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill that included $25 million in aid to the Kennedy Center, which was forced to shutter its doors on March 12 to comply with social distancing guidelines.
Ed Malaga, president of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the American Federation of Musicians, said the union has filed a grievance over the decision stop payments to musicians, calling it “outrageous” and “blatantly illegal.”
“This decision, from an organization with an endowment of nearly $100 million, is not only outrageous — coming after the musicians had expressed their willingness to discuss ways to accommodate the Kennedy Center during this challenging time — it is also blatantly illegal under the parties’ collective bargaining agreement,” Mr. Malaga said in a statement. “That agreement specifically requires that the Center provide six weeks’ notice before it can stop paying musicians for economic reasons.”
Ms. Rutter, who told her staff earlier in the week that she was suspending her $1.2 million salary until the crisis ended, said Saturday that the $25 million would “provide long-term cash flow for essential personnel to ensure that we can reopen the Center and re-employ our staff and musicians.”
“Without concerts and the corresponding ticket revenue, it is an unsustainable strategy to pay musicians to stay at home during this forced and still undefined quarantine period,” she said, The Washington Post reported. “These cuts combined with anticipated administrative staff furloughs and potential layoffs may seem drastic, however, we know the only way through this is for all union and non-union employees to participate in the solution. The other unions within the Center have also experienced this furlough and are not or will not be receiving compensation.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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