Wage negotiations postponed at the Met

On Sunday, the Met announced that it had commissioned a neutral party to review the opera company's finances; wage negotiations have been postponed for one week. The company declined to comment on a looming halt to operations.
Faced with declining attendance and rising costs and in an effort to get its deficit under control, the Met's management announced a 16-percent wage reduction earlier this year. Wages, salaries and fees constitute approximately 80 per cent of its expenditures.
Since then, over a dozen labor unions have been negotiating for the interests of the singers, dancers and instrumentalists at the largest opera house in the U.S. Agreements have been reached with only three of them thus far.
In the light of a $2.8 million deficit and the announced wage cut, the unions had repeatedly criticized expensive set designs as "extremely wasteful," including a poppy field with a price tag of $169,000. "We all look forward to a fair and independent analysis of the complex issues we have been contending with for months," said Tino Gagliardi, one of the negotiators.
Meanwhile, the artists continue to work under the conditions of the contract agreement that expired on July 31 and are rehearsing for the season beginning on September 22. Mozart‘s "Marriage of Figaro," Puccini‘s "La Boheme" and Verdi’s "Macbeth" are on the playbill.
dgp / suc / rf (dpa, ap)