The Metropolitan Opera said Monday that it needs to slash its workers’ long-term contracts by 30 percent to survive — a proposal rejected by the union representing its employees, a new report said.
Because of the impasse, the Met added, it will lock out the few doze༒n stagehands still working amid the pandem🎃ic at midnight Tuesday, New York Times.
“I realize it is incredibly painful what we’re asking them to do,” Peter Gelb, the opera house’s general manager, told the newspaper.
“🍷But what we’re trying to do is keep♔ the Met alive, and the only way to achieve that is to reduce our costs.”
Most of the Met’s nearly 300 stagehands have been furloughed since April.🥃 Under the Met’s proposal, a promise of up to $1,500 a week for many employees is attached to the long-term contractual pay cut.
Once, and if, the Met’s revenue returns to pre-pandemic levels, 🌃half of the cuts would be restored, th🅺e newspaper reported.
James Claffey Jr., the president of Local One — the union representing the Met’s workers — told the Times that none of the stagehands were open to the 30 percent pay cut.
“To do this during a deadly virus is just ridiculous,” Claffey said, referring to the lockout. “But that’s their lever💞age at this point.”
The Met hopes to reopen next♋ fall, with work for more stagehands planned🧔 to begin well in advance.