Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Agrees to a New Labor Deal

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra announced on Saturday that it would end its two-month lockout after reaching a deal that would give its musicians small raises but require them to pay more for their health insurance, while also allowing the orchestra to leave positions vacant longer.

The deal paves the way for the orchestra to begin its 70th season. The opening concert will be on Nov. 13, with the music director, Robert Spano, leading the orchestra and chorus in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The orchestra had been scheduled to play Vaughan Williams's 'A Sea Symphony' that night, a piece that has special resonance for the ensemble, whose recording of it won a Grammy Award in 2003 - but there was apparently not enough time left to rehearse because of the lockout.

The agreement brings Atlanta's second lockout of its musicians in two years to a close, and ends a bitter battle that had led to canceled concerts, the resignation of the orchestra's president and questions about why a city with Atlanta's economic clout had difficulty sustaining an orchestra.

The lockout was triggered after the orchestra's parent organization, the Woodruff Arts Center, sought more concessions from the musicians, who had agreed to significant pay cuts two years ago. The arts center said that it could no longer afford the orchestra's deficits.

The players, whose take-home pay was reduced 14 to 15 percent in 2012 when members agreed to be paid for less than 52 weeks a year, will see their pay increase by 6 percent over the new four-year contract. They will also be put into a new health care plan, which will require them to make higher premium contributions, the orchestra said.

One of the most contentious aspects of the negotiation involved the size of the orchestra. After the last lockout, the musicians agreed to reduce the number of players to 88 from 95, but there are now fewer than 80 because of retirements and departures.

Management had sought to eliminate the contractual requirement to keep a minimum number of musicians, saying it needed 'flexibility.' Musicians wanted to keep a full-sized orchestra. The deal that was reached, with help from federal mediators, will allow the orchestra to stay below 88 musicians for most of the contract period, but will set some minimums. It calls for 77 musicians in the first year, a 'goal' of 81 musicians in the second, and commitments for 84 musicians in the third year and 88 in the fourth.

'We are grateful and humbled by the incredible outpouring of support displayed for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra from our community, as well as across the country and around the world,' Danny Laufer, an associate principal cellist with the orchestra who served as vice president of the musicians' negotiating team, said in a statement. He thanked Mr. Spano and Donald Runnicles, its principal guest conductor, who took the unusual step of intervening in the labor battle to express support for the musicians.

Virginia A. Hepner, the president and chief executive of the Woodruff Arts Center, said in a statement that the hard work would begin now. 'Together we must find new, compelling ways to engage the community to assure the support the symphony needs,' she said. 'We must work together with music director Robert Spano and our musicians to get more people in Symphony Hall and more donors willing to support our extraordinary orchestra.'

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