The labor standoff that cost the Minnesota Orchestra its entire last season, and is imperiling the coming season, was extended on Thursday, when the orchestra’s locked-out players voted to reject the latest contract offer put forward by management.
The offer that the musicians rejected was made by the orchestra’s management last week. It called for the players to return to work for two months at their old salaries, and then, if no new deal was struck, to work for two years with their base pay cut by nearly a quarter.
The musicians called on the orchestra’s board to accept a proposal made this summer by George J. Mitchell, the former senator and Middle East envoy, who is acting as a mediator in the dispute. That proposal, which the management rejected earlier, would bring the players back to work for two months under their old contract, to be followed by two months at a 6 percent pay cut, while the two sides negotiate.
Time is running out. The orchestra’s music director, Osmo Vanska, has said that the players must be back at work by Sept. 30 to get ready to play a pair of concerts at Carnegie Hall scheduled for November, and has threatened to resign if the concerts are canceled. To meet that deadline, management has said that it will need to reach a deal with the musicians by Sept. 15.
