Blaming the worker bees for management's woes?

This appalling piece appeared in today's New York Daily News.  The authors, who outright blame orchestra musicians for the current woes of their respective organizations are both affiliated with the "Competitive Enterprise Institute," a "a non-profit, non-partisan research and advocacy institute dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government."  It is important to note that the CEI is an organization that denies a link between greenhouse gases and climate change, while offering opposition to U.S. fuel efficiency standards and serving as a booster to the drug industry.  See more information about the the CEI here.  Some of the major contributors to this organization include the infamous Koch brothers, the Amoco Foundation (would that be BP?) Pfizer, Inc., and the Philip Morris Companies.

Revenue for CEI in the fiscal year 2008-09 totaled a modest $4.6 million.  It's President, Fred L. Smith, earned $214,000 that year.  Interestingly enough, the organization hasn't deemed my state of Iowa significant enough to file a form 990 in.  For that I suppose I should be thankful.  One simply has to understand the source of such audacious statements about musicians' (and other) unions before accepting them as true.

I wrote a comment to the Daily News article, in which I stated:

The authors need to either do their homework or provide complete details regarding the mismanagement of some of our nation's cultural treasures. The problems in Detroit are a direct result of management's inability to pay off the debt of the major addition to Orchestra Hall, funds which the orchestra raised in their entirety but instead chose to submit to the endowment fund for investment. When the current economic crisis struck, the investments disappeared, forcing the management to work to balance the orchestra's budget on the backs of the players. In contract negotiations, it is obvious that the two sides were close to an agreement on salary cuts (management 27%, union counter offer 24%) when management's counter-counter was 33%! As for the Philadelphia Orchestra (understanding that I am not an accountant), an examination of their financial records (as appearing on their IRS 990 form from 2009) indicates that the orchestra spent approximately $10 million more than it took in.

Furthermore, a reading of the Philadelphia financials shows that the organization lost $50 million of its $170 million endowment in fiscal 2009.  Still, this "bankrupt" orchestra maintains assets (restricted or otherwise) in excess of $120 million.  Somebody is going to have a heyday with all of that money and you can bet it's not the unions or their pension funds.  No, sadly to say, it will be the $750/hour bankruptcy attorneys.

In short, placing the blame for the financial woes of cultural institutions such as City Opera, the Detroit Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra is akin to blaming the hard-working folks "on the line" for the huge bailout given to General Motors.  And still, the executives are rolling in the dough.