This piece from the Canadian La Scena Musicale puts a different slant on
the story:
The Dutoit Affair: Cause and Solution
EDITORIAL by Wah Keung Chan / April 16, 2002
La Scena Musicale Online
Piecing together the events of the Dutoit affair from the many
published sources, it is now clear that a major cause is a provision
in the 1998 collective agreement. Alan Conter of the Globe and Mail
(April 13, 2002) found the root of the problem to be clause 12.05
c), which states that when the maestro initiates a dismissal procedure,
the dismissal can only be set aside by at least 75% of the review
committee, meaning that 25% of the committee is needed to fire a
musician. The review committee is normally composed of the audition
or tenure committee without the participation of the maestro. La
Scena Musicale has learned that the terms of clause 12.05 c) has
existed in various forms since the mid-1980s. Before this, the
maestro needed at least 50% of the committee to side with him. At
that time, the clause was to be changed to 75% of the committee to
give musicians more security, but a typo or other error altered the
requirement to 25%. Nobody caught it, and the time bomb has been
handed down from contract to contract ever since. Laura Brownell,
Director of the Symphonic Services Division of the Canadian office
of the American Federation of Musicians, said, "the other major
Canadian orchestras need at least a majority to dismiss, and the
Toronto and Vancouver symphonies require 9 votes out of 13."
According to Marie-Josee Desrochers, the MSO's director of
communications, Dutoit was simply following the rules of the collective
agreement in requesting a meeting with the two musicians to discuss
their work, as a first step that might lead to dismissal. La Scena
Musicale has learned that this is the first time Dutoit has initiated
such a procedure since the last musician was fired back around 1980.
Never having had the need to refer to clause 12.05 c) until last
month, the MSO musicians were shocked at its contents. It is
understandable, then, that the musicians were upset to find Dutoit
and the MSO seemingly taking advantage of this clause. As a result
they asked their union to save the jobs of their two colleagues.
Guild president Emile Subirana must have realized that, given the
details of the collective agreement, if Dutoit were to dismiss the
musicians, he could really do nothing more to save the jobs. Instead,
he resorted to playing the harassment card and threatening a law
suit. The strategy might have been sound if Subirana had started
the negotiations privately.
It is now clear that the decision to go public with the threat of a
lawsuit was a ploy to disgrace Dutoit, forcing him to resign while
diverting attention from the Guild's mishandling of clause 12.05 c).
Articles in the daily newspapers suggest that the majority of MSO
musicians were surprised by Subirana's actions and that these actions
do not represent their will. If this is the case, the musicians had
better change the mandate given to the union.
Where do we go from here?
While it's difficult to undo much of the damage of recent events,
the clock must be rolled back to a time when both Dutoit and the
musicians were comfortable with each other. Management must take
a more active role in improving dialogue so that all the different
parts of the orchestra (conductor, musicians, administration and
board) are working harmoniously together. The collective agreement
must be negotiated to:
* give back to the musicians the security of the dismissal procedures
as found in other major Canadian orchestras;
* ensure the touring clauses conform to industry standards as found
in other world-class orchestras, which could mean that rehearsal
of orchestral works may be permitted.
In the immediate, the following needs to take place:
* the review procedures of the two musicians need to be rescinded
by Dutoit and management until after the new collective agreement;
* the MSO musicians must vote by a majority to ask Charles Dutoit
to return as artistic director;
* the musicians should withdraw their carte blanche mandate to the
Guild to act on their behalf in this matter;
* a committee of musicians and administration should meet Dutoit
in person, as suggested by Arthur Kaptainis in the Montreal Gazette
(April 13, 2002).
The crisis can be resolved if we take the lead from the events in
Venezuela and allow cooler heads to prevail over personal egos.
Let the desire to produce excellent music be the guiding light.
Richard Pennycuick
[log in to unmask]
|