The musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra have announced they will exercise their legal right to engage in labor activity by distributing informational leaflets to the public before the Sept. 25 performance tonight. The musicians have been in negotiations for a new contract with their employer, the John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, since May but the two parties remain far apart on wages and other material issues. The NSO musicians have proposed a wage increase of three percent over the next four years as the wages have declined by roughly 15 percent since the beginning of the last collective bargaining agreement more than five years ago. The first performance with Sarah Bareilles saw several NSO musicians gather near the entrance to the concert hall to distribute leaflets to patrons.
Within minutes, an individual who identified himself as Kennedy Center security aggressively confronted the musicians and informed them that they needed to leave the area and decamp. When the musicians stood their ground, the same individual threatened to call the Park Police. The musicians’ union, the D.
C. Federation of Musicians, Local 161-710, American Federation of Musicians, filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board noting that Kennedy Center security’s aggressive and illegal treatment of Union members violated their statutory rights. The NSO musicians will return to the Concert Hall entrance on the East Building sidewalk to distri.
