Philadelphia Orchestra’s choir moves to unionize

Members of the choral group that regularly performs with the Philadelphia Orchestra are seeking to unionize. Working with the American Guild of Musical Artists, singers of the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir have signed a majority of cards asking for the union to represent them, organizers say.

AGMA has given the Philadelphia Orchestra Association a Monday deadline for granting voluntary union recognition to the group, just as the members prepare to join the orchestra for next week’s performances of Handel’s Messiah.

Griff Braun, an AGMA organizer, declined to say exactly how many of the group’s 100-or-so singers had signed union cards, but called it a “very strong majority.”

AGMA hopes for a positive response from the association, but, failing that, the group plans to petition the National Labor Relations Board for a representation election, he said.

“I hope the association will respect this group enough to work on a voluntary basis to start off bargaining on the right foot,” Braun said. “These folks are highly skilled and renowned, and we hope the association will give them the respect they deserve, and work with us on this.”

An orchestra spokesperson said the group would not answer specific questions about the matter, but added in a statement: “We received the request as it was made public. We are reviewing it and will respond directly to the American Guild of Musical Artists.”

The Philadelphia Symphonic Choir joins a growing list of local arts groups where labor issues have bubbled up recently. Musicians from the Philly Pops and Opera Philadelphia have been leafleting before performances while negotiating contracts to replace deals that expired several months ago. Workers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art landed their very first labor contract in October after a 19-day strike.

A number of choral groups associated with other major orchestras are represented by AGMA, including the New York Philharmonic Chorus, San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus.

The Philadelphia Orchestra has worked with various choral ensembles — this March/April it performs with the Crossing choir in a world premiere by John Luther Adams led by conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin — and in 2016 it created the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir. Many of the group’s singers piece together a living by teaching, working for music programs at houses of worship, or performing as soloists with other choirs locally and nationally.

Unionizing would give them bargaining power to help negotiate a contract covering compensation, health and safety protocols, and work rules like scheduling.

As for whether the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir would seek a contract making it the only choral group the orchestra would use, Braun said: “I think that’s something we’d want to talk about in bargaining.”

The choristers don’t expect to earn a full time salary from just performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra, which uses a choral group only a few times a year. But rehearsing and performing with the group brings expenses that weigh against compensation, says singer Ted Latham.

For Messiah in 2019, Latham says he worked five rehearsals and one performance, at $65 per call, for a total paycheck of $390.

“After paying for a lunch you might have between two rehearsals, and paying for parking, and if some of them have childcare to pay for, it’s an expensive proposition,” he said.

The per-service fee has been raised to $80, according to two sources, though the orchestra would not confirm that.

Latham said the singers felt “undervalued.”

Members are an “equal part of the experience for the overall sound we create with the orchestra,” he said, “and don’t want to feel like second-class citizens.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the city’s push toward economic justice. See all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org.