Musicians must reiect dea
Socialist Press1980 1980-07-30Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 5 →
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Whenever there is a dirty deal to be done, especially in the arts or the media, Lord Goodman, Harold Wilson's legal fixer, seldom far away.
It was Goodman who was the architect of the proposed agreement in the seven week old musicians' strike against the The settlement reached last Wednesday between the BBC and national officials of the Musicians Union "saves" three out of the six orchestras which the BBC wanted to close.
But the internationally known BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra will be maintained as a smaller orchestra than before.
The London Studio Players will be retained in a new form.
And the BBC Northern Ireland Symphony Orchestra will be "saved" and enlarged only by being supported by "independent financial sponsors" as well as on the BBC, whose contribution will be restricted to £100,000.
But there is nothing in the agreement which will guarantee these "independent funds"
And the three other light music orchestras will close, though the BBC agrees to offer freelance "contracts" to their players for part-time work.
Concessions
The BBC has made concessions compared with its earlier proposals.
But the new plans fall far short of the musicians' demands and, despite freelance "contracts". , will still lead to 63 redundancies.
MU assistant cecretary
Hibberd praised the sell-out • saying "the entire musical profession owes Lord Goodman an enormous debt now and always".
It remains to be seen what 42,000 MU members, now voting in a ballot, will think of But already the "saved" BBC musicians in Scotland are saying in a most principled way that they do not accept the settlement even though it "saves" one of their orchestras.
Also MU members in Northern Ireland have said that they will continue their strike because the proposals for Northern Ireland are so vague.
Despite the executive recommendation for acceptance, the only way to fight effectively for the severely threatened interests of musicians will be to vote "no' to the Goodman settlement and to continue the strike.
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Page 6. Wednesday 30 July 1980