Aug 03, 2014
By Bob Sheppard
The Metropolitan Opera in New York and the union that represents its musicians, singers, dancers, stagehands and carpenters have agreed to a timeout in their contract negotiations.
The one-week halt in negotiations avoids a threatened lockout, and will allow for an independent examination of the famed cultural instution’s finances.
The Met wants the union to accept a pay cut of almost 17 percent to trim its budget defecit of 2.8 million dollars.
The union says its members would lose roughly 30 perceent of their income when factoring in additional pension cuts and higher health care costs.
A lockout would have disrupted the new opera season for the first time in thirty years.
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