Escalating the War in Houston

The musicians of the Houston Symphony have filed an official complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing their management of bargaining in bad faith, and of planning to impose new working conditions on the musicians by declaring an impasse a few weeks from now. The management wants to slash salaries and eliminate five string players outright in an effort to deal with years of financial problems, but the musicians insist that they should not be forced to bear the burden of management’s past mistakes. For a start, they’d like a look at the orchestra’s financial records, but so far, orchestra executives have refused to open the books.