Historically, when strikes took place in the United Kingdom, they generally revolved around the rights of working-class people doing dirty jobs. The prime example was often the predicament of miners.
Recently, all of that has changed. While strikes have been widespread of late, they are no longer been restricted to blue-collar workers, with doctors, nurses and teachers all taking industrial action in an attempt to protect jobs, terms and pay.
Another phenomenon that differentiates the situation in this country from some of those overseas is the puppeteer holding the purse strings. In America, screenwriters and actors have recently been on strike in an attempt to persuade studios to behave responsibly and fairly. Here, it seems that while the employers are theoretically negotiating with the workers, in most cases the real target of anger and the true source of resolution is the government.
All of this has relevance with the news that the musicians and chorus at ENO, respectively represented by the Musicians’ Union and Equity, are planning to take full strike action on 1 February. Unless an agreement can be reached, the Coliseum opening that they will disrupt is of The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood’s portrayal of a society run by a sinister, totalitarian government that treats too many of its citizens as pawns.
The strength of feeling becomes apparent when you discover that, with a turnout of almost 95%, 100% of chorus members at ENO voted to take strike action. Members of the Musicians’ Union were almost as strident, with not far short of 95% wanting full strike action on a 92% turnout.
The underlying reasons become apparent when you discover that ENO was attempting to emulate the much-derided P & O Ferries, which many readers will recall was threatened with legal action by Boris Johnson after sacking many members of staff and offering to reemploy them on lower pay and less favourable terms.
In this case, according to Equity, “ENO management announced plans to make all of the chorus, orchestra and music staff redundant and only reemploy them for 6 months of the year. For some musicians in the orchestra, the proposal is to reduce their contracts even further with some being offered ad-hoc freelance work only.” In addition, reports suggest that 19 staff members will be redundant.
This is part of a wider government plan forced through by former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries who demanded that, despite the fact that it owns the London Coliseum, ENO should move out of the capital to the North West, Manchester being the favoured location.
Nicholas Kenyon in The Daily Telegraph had strong views about an action that some have called blackmail and which removed all funding until ENO agreed to seek a new home, stating, "Arts Council England’s appallingly handled funding round, for which heads have not rolled, directed by the government’s instruction to move funding out of London.”
After ENO accepted the inevitable, funding was restored but at an inadequate level, leading to the cuts and ensuing industrial dispute. All involved will realise that musicians and chorus members are specialists who have trained for years to achieve the required levels of expertise and ENO has something not far short of a monopoly position.
As ENO chorus member and Equity Deputy Ronald Nairne has so eloquently pleaded, “it gives me no pleasure to vote for strike action—I joined the ENO chorus to sing, and to share opera with as many people as possible. Management’s proposals to fire and rehire me and my colleagues with a 40% salary cut and worsened working conditions will make remaining in the chorus unsustainable for many. I voted yes to taking strike action to force our management to reconsider their plans and come up with a different, more creative model that protects the workforce.”
Jo Laverty of the Musicians’ Union if anything makes the point even clearer: “our members at English National Opera are devastated to be having to consider this level of action, but their personal and professional lives are being devastated by these decisions. We know that some members are having to sell their homes and make hugely impactful life decisions without a certain future about their work for ENO.”
Even if they were to accept the inevitable pay cut and reduction in work, not too much further down the line they would face forced relocation to the North West. Instead, some may decide to cut their losses and move overseas, while others could find that it makes economic sense to obtain full-time employment stacking shelves in a supermarket or working for the likes of Amazon, where there will be no job fulfilment but at least there is a degree of security and annual income may even be higher.
At the moment, it is hard to see much optimism for the future. This government has consistently made it clear that it has no interest in culture, regularly appointing new uninterested ministers who seemingly regard the role as a stepping stone to higher office and nothing more.
That could change were Labour to take office, since the shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire is a cellist who will at least understand the concerns of artistes, but may struggle to find a satisfactory budget to assist them, given constraints as result of austerity and the cost-of-living crisis.
In the meantime, ENO is in desperate straits while planning a move that will destroy its ethos and purpose, musicians and singers must be contemplating a terrible future, while ticketholders anticipating what should be a special event are likely to be disappointed. It is so, so sad.
Even worse, other theatres are facing similar financial difficulties having seen their finances significantly reduced by Arts Council England with the possibility that strike action at ENO could inspire others to follow suit in the light of job cuts and pay rises that cannot keep up with inflation and could easily become pay freezes.