THE Welsh National Opera’s (WNO) choristers began balloting today for strike action over proposals to cut jobs and pay by at least 15 per cent.
Equity union said plans to reduce the already under-resourced chorus will bring the “real threat of compulsory redundancies.”
Acknowledging funding cuts from both the Arts Council and Arts Council of Wales, the union said: “We will not accept compulsory redundancies or the desire of WNO management to make contracts ‘flexible’ solely to their own advantage, while adding the precarity of an unsustainable cut to chorus members’ basic earnings.”
The ballot will run until September 4.
Equity’s national and regional official for Wales and South West England Simon Curtis said WNO management “seem intent on pushing through these changes at speed.”
“These proposals, however, are unsustainable for our members and potentially catastrophic for the sector more widely in the UK,” he added.
An Arts Council England spokeswoman said: “The Welsh National Opera is an important part of our country's opera ecology, producing and touring excellent work, which is why we're investing over £15.3 million in WNO over the next three years for its work in England. This includes £4 million a year in core funding, and an additional £3.25 million to enable WNO to re-engineer its business to manage on lower levels of funding.
“While we do not get involved in the day to day running of organisations, we know that organisations are currently faced with challenging operating conditions, and we are working closely with funded organisations who are facing financial challenges and being as flexible as we can be in the way they deliver their Arts Council funding agreements.”
WNO and Arts Council of Wales have been contacted for comment.
