Letters: Readers respond on Fort Worth Symphony

Who could write about a voluntary pay cut that the “money is gone and it won’t come back”? ( “Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, RIP,” Tuesday)

No working person would accept that from an employer they had sacrificed to help.

When the symphony musicians accepted a 13.5 percent pay cut six years ago, they were promised that their sacrifice would provide the needed time to build for the future.

The symphony association’s board says sources are drying up? North Texas Giving Day raised a record-setting $33.1 million for arts organizations in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2015, up from $26 million in 2014.

The board is reneging on its promise to fix the problems. The musicians sacrificed and the board doesn’t care enough to do the minimum.

The musicians are not walking out. They have given up on their employer keeping its promise or caring enough to try. Sometimes “no income” is better than being abused.

It is both irresponsible and inflammatory to imply that a labor dispute is the death knell of a cultural institution that has flourished and brought great music to Fort Worth for nearly 100 years.

According to your own paper, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington economy ranks sixth in the nation at $440 billion, with an expected job growth rate of 40 percent over the next 10 years. It would seem that Fort Worth can both afford to support and deserves to have a world-class orchestra.

The musicians of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra took a hard financial hit in the post-recession economy, as did many Americans. Now, when the economy of Fort Worth is prospering, the board and management seek more cutbacks.

Surely they could find the resources to restore the salaries and weeks of employment to the musicians and match some percentage of that expected economic growth.

Fort Worth deserves a first-class orchestra alongside its other first-class cultural institutions, and the musicians of the FWSO deserve to be paid accordingly.

The management of the FWSO should step up and keep its previous promise to raise funds and obtain grants that would prevent further salary cuts.

The musicians have shown patience during negotiations for the past year. The symphony management needs to do its job or step down.

Fellow musicians like myself understand the challenges, but it will be a sad day for Fort Worth and the region if these musicians are forced to take their expertise elsewhere and the quality of the organization is lost.

Fort Worth is playing second fiddle to Dallas, thanks to the FWSO board and management.

While a direct comparison of the two orchestras is unfair, both face similar financial challenges.

The Dallas Symphony board chose to grow the orchestra’s resources and negotiate better contracts for its musicians.

Meanwhile, by focusing on an agenda of regressive musician contracts and a paltry fundraising effort, the FWSO board is attempting to turn back the clock to when its orchestra was known as the Texas Little Symphony.

Many FWSO board members simultaneously serve on the Performing Arts Fort Worth (PAFW) board in a glaring conflict of interest. (PAFW controls FWSO’s Bass Hall rental rates.)

And perhaps worst of all, the FWSO board has put itself in opposition to its musicians, resulting in a caustic labor dispute that promises to be a losing proposition for both sides and leave bitter recriminations for years to come.

Shame on you! The talent drain of important musicians leaving for greener pastures continues. Fort Worth deserves better.

  Clarification

Star-Telegram Publisher Gary Wortel is one of 83 board members of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. He is not a member of the 20-person executive committee. His membership on the board was not disclosed in a Tuesday editorial about the strike by symphony musicians.

This story was originally published September 14, 2016 at 5:46 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers respond on Fort Worth Symphony."