LONDON (AFP): Singers and musicians at one of the UK’s leading opera companies on Tuesday became the latest group to back strike action over pay and conditions.
Members of the English National Opera (ENO) chorus and orchestra will walk out on February 1, which was due to be the opening night of a production of “The Handmaid’s Tale” in London.
The UK has been hit by a wave of public and private sector strikes caused by the soaring cost of living since 2022 involving lawyers and dock workers to doctors and teachers.
Unions say their members voted in favour of the strike action over so-called “fire and rehire” plans by ENO management.
Under the plans, chorus and orchestra members would be made redundant then re-employed for only six months a year while some musicians would only be offered work on an ad-hoc freelance basis.
The company late last year announced that it would move to Manchester in northwest England, a year after the Arts Council England threatened to axe its annual £12-million ($15-million) grant if it did not leave the capital.
Naomi Pohl, general secretary of the Musicians’ Union, said it was the first time members had voted to strike since 1980.
“The management have decided to cut our members down to six months of work per year and this risks a wonderful, talented and specialist orchestra dissipating.
“It is heartbreaking to see the impact on the individuals affected.”
Paul Fleming, general secretary of the actors’ union Equity, said management were “proposing fire and rehire, 40-percent cuts in wages, and no permanent jobs in a new Manchester base”.
In a statement released to the BBC, ENO management said it was disappointed by the decision to strike.
“Given the assurance that no action would be taken which would damage the company, we are saddened that the action (the chorus) have chosen seems specifically designed to cause the utmost harm to both the company and our audience,” it said in a statement.
Equity said last year members were protesting the pay cuts as a result of plans to reduce the ENO’s opera season in London following a reduction in funding.
