The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra has been locked out by management for more than six weeks but new talks are set for Wednesday. Jan (Yann) Gippo is a spokesperson for the musician’s union. He says St. Louis Orchestra musicians are paid $15,000 a year less than orchestras in similar cities.

[Jan Gippo1]: “ If we accept what he’s offering this orchestra will leave the one percentile of great symphony orchestras in the world and fall to nineteenth and become a revolving door orchestra where the young players will leave.”

Gippo says management took away pre-paid health insurance from locked out musicians in St. Louis...

[Gippo 2]: “Cancelling our health insurance in labor terms is a very adversarial position to take, very combative. We didn’t take that position. And he locked us out, At 7 o’ clock on Monday morning, long before we had were going to take a vote, before the orchestra had gotten the proposal to take a vote he had locked us out. That’s why it’s a lockout.”

The union musicians are willing to take $10,000 a year les than peers in similar cities but they say quality of the orchestra is now the main issue.