CSO PLAYERS STAY TOPS IN PAY WITH NEW PACT DEAL INCLUDES PROVISION FOR DOMESTIC PARTNERS CHICAGOLAND FINAL Edition

• Published in: Chicago tribune (1963)
• Main Author: Lou Carlozo, Tribune Staff Writer. Free-lance writer Amanda Barrett contributed to this article
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago, Ill Tribune Publishing Company, LLC 05.10.1997
• Subjects: Domestic partners; Employee benefits; Labor contracts; Orchestras; Wages & salaries; Chicago Illinois
• ISSN: 1085-6706

Reprising the cliffhanger of 1994, negotiators for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's musicians and management worked out a contract less than 24 hours before Saturday's season-opening gala at Symphony Center. Negotiators for the musicians and management reached agreement just before midnight Friday after almost eight hours of bargaining. The CSO musicians, whose old contract had expired Sept. 14, had threatened not to participate in the unveiling of the $110 million renovation and expansion of their home. This mirrored an even closer shave in 1994, when a contract agreement staved off a walkout just hours before that season's CSO opener. Under the new contract, the current base scale of $1,510 a week (or $78,520 a year) rises by $65 the first year, $60 the second and $65 the third, ending at $1,700 a week (or $88,400 a year). In the third year of the pact only, the maximum pension benefit rises to $53,000 per year from $48,000, an increase of 10.4 percent. Changes to health coverage were minor except for the provision of a maximum $2,500 in health-related expenses for domestic partners.