WNO orchestra accepts new agreement

The Musicians’ Union has announced that musicians in the Welsh National Opera (WNO) orchestra have voted to accept a new agreement. The decision follows a year of negotiations and industrial action  in response to the company’s proposal to make the orchestra part-time and cut musicians’ pay by 15 per cent, as well as cutting down on touring.

Musicians voted by an overwhelming majority of 97 per cent (of the 97 per cent who responded to the ballot) to accept a new deal from WNO management which protects members’ jobs. However, the deal will still see the orchestra lose around 10 vacant seats, and the MU maintains that a sustainable funding package must ‘account for a full-time, full-size orchestra for Wales alongside its touring future in England and Wales’.

Llinos Owen, who is an MU member and a member of the WNO orchestra’s player committee, said: ’This result gives some much needed assurances for the orchestral players currently in post, and we are pleased that the move to a part-time orchestra is now off the table. Whilst this marks the end of our industrial action, we are acutely aware that there have been job losses for many of our friends and colleagues across the company, and that the chorus are currently facing compulsory redundancies. The orchestra has lost 10 posts since 2020, and WNO has sustained particularly hard hitting cuts to its public funding, reducing the number of performances we are able to give to our audiences.’

Owen added: ‘Our new contract enables us as an orchestra to be more firmly embedded in the communities in which we work, and as we put this period of industrial action behind us, we can now work together with our new passionate and innovative General Directors to campaign positively for more sustainable funding for WNO, the opera sector and the Arts in general, so that we can continue to have secure employment, performing world class work across Wales, England, and internationally.’

Today’s vote follows a year of campaigning from the MU, including a petition which garnered the support of over 14,000 signatories including Michael Sheen and Sir Bryn Terfel as well as political support from the members of the Senedd and members of Parliament and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in England and Wales. Public campaigning also saw WNO orchestra members join their colleagues in the chorus, production and management (including new co-general director-CEOs Adele Thomas and Sarah Crabtree) onstage on opening night of Peter Grimes to directly address the audience, which included chair of Arts Council England Nicolas Serota.

The MU has confirmed it continues to share solidarity with Equity members in the WNO Chorus whose campaign to protect their jobs is ongoing.