[Except, of course, for careless errors in spelling, grammar, or typos.  The fault, there, belongs to the damn computer.]

No offense intended towards Drew. Venture very may well be the greatest thing since the Model T, but for an orchestra struggling to make it through the season, it’s probably not going to do much good at this point. Many non-profits struggle with the same ‘magic bullet’ desperation strategy, and plenty of for-profit businesses have put all their chips on one last bet to save the company. So, it’s not like this is exactly a unique phenomenon. What is striking about it, though, is how often it happens in the orchestral world.

Reading the Detroit musicians’ site is pretty fascinating. They make the mistake of leading with the argument that reduced pay will move them out of the mythical ‘Top Ten’. That’s a farcical argument predicated on a ranking of wages in the industry, not artistic quality. The fact that the rest of their case is so strong makes their decision to make the Top Ten canard their first talking point even more befuddling.

Their next talking point highlights one of the major strengths of their case: their willingness to accept salary cuts. They have proven that they are willing to be part of a solution. However, they manage to fumble the ball by demanding that salary cuts always be tied to a recovery:

Numerous times in past decades, Detroit and Michigan’s economy was such that severe cutbacks in salary and benefits had to be accepted by the staff and musicians. In every instance that such requests were made to the musicians, they understood the problems and agreed to those concessions. In those instances, they recognized that if such concessions were not lifted at some point the orchestra would be unable to retain and attract the kinds of musicians who make up the heart and soul of the DSO’s greatness. Thus, on each occasion, the concessions were followed by a “recovery” in the final year giving the musicians the light at the end of the tunnel to which they could pin their hopes of retaining their status among the top ten.

re economic crisis of the state and the city, they are once again being asked to take severe cuts upwards of 28% in salary, drastic cuts in their health insurance, elimination of contributions to their retirement benefits, and a detrimental reduction in the number of musicians. And, once again, the musicians have offered to accept millions of dollars of concessions in order to help the DSO to survive this recession.

Nevertheless, management is unwilling to agree to any restoration of wages and benefits, even two or three years from now, that might even come close to enabling the DSO to regain its status. In fact, management’s demands make permanent the DSO’s fall out of the top ten American symphony orchestras. If the musicians are forced to accept such a permanent fall of the orchestra, out of the top ten, many of their players will audition for and win jobs in other top ten orchestras, and those young people seeking a career in a great orchestra will look elsewhere.

I couldn’t find any statement on their site where the Detroit musicians seemed to recognize that a recovery to the top of the wage scale might not be possible. They seem to dismiss out of hand the notion that the orchestra simply cannot afford to pay salaries above $80,000. While on the one hand, they are admirably ready to accept cuts to that level and below in the short term, they insist that pay needs to return there as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, the rest of their sprawling site (turn off the autoplaying music, please!) goes into fairly sickening details of financial mismanagement. That’s where the bulk of their case lies:

1. The DSO hasn’t turned a profit in a decade!
2. They’ve gone from 25,000 donors to 5,000 over the last two decades.
3. Management problems were identified in 2006. A plan to fix them was formalized in 2008. Nothing has happened.
4. This same management raised $60 million for a new hall, put it in the bank, and borrowed the money for construction, gambling that they could beat the interest rates on the loan through clever investing.
5. The loan is now sucking $3 million a year from the endowment, and the DSO is on the brink of foreclosure on a property they could have bought and paid for in cash.

This list of woes is where the musicians’ case finally gains traction. They have been miserably served by their bosses, and now that everyone is in radical restructuring mode, they should dump the risible Top Ten argument and fight tooth and nail for real reforms.

At the top of their list should be an overhaul of the management. They should make sure that compensation is tied to performance. They’d get fired if they performed poorly. Why shouldn’t the CEO and his team? They should also make sure they are getting more leverage on the board in exchange for their pay cuts.

It’s heartening to see that they have authorized a strike. Hopefully, if it comes to that, they’ll reprioritize their talking points.