Negotiations

Negotiating into 2022

December 9, 2021

Throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic, negotiations have literally been held with every bargaining unit of Local 72-147, in one way another. Whether for side letters to survive the lockdown, COVID safety protocols at the workplace, or for multi-year successor agreements, this period has brought with it an unprecedented amount of negotiating of critical issues for the live music industry.

Due to the uncertainties of the Pandemic, it has been typical for one-year contract extensions to agreements to be negotiated, with special COVID-19 provisions. As a result many of our bargaining units will return to the bargaining table in spring of 2022, even after having continued to negotiated steadily over the past two years.

New negotiations which will move forward early in 2022 will include talks with Casa Manana in Fort Worth, which had shut down its Broadway series throughout the Pandemic, and has been slow to provide employment for its musicians. There are also ongoing negotiations for successor agreements with The Dallas Opera and Dallas Summer Musicals.

Other negotiations will resume in the spring — as with the Fort Worth Symphony and Wichita Falls Symphony — which had reached one year agreements, and which will expire at that time. And some multi-year agreements were reached during 2021 — such as the East Texas Symphony and the Dallas Symphony — which provide improvements for the musicians moving into the upcoming seasons.

As the conditions of the Pandemic continue to evolve, discussions over safety protocols will undoubtedly continue regularly.