Members of the English National Opera (ENO) are to be balloted for strike action in a dispute over pay.
Equity, the performing arts union, said its members in the ENO chorus would vote in early January on whether to launch a campaign of industrial action.
The union said it was fighting plans to cut chorus salaries by 40% under moves to shorten their contracts as ENO’s opera season in London is planned to be reduced.
Hilary Hadley, Equity’s assistant general secretary, said: “Our members cannot accept ENO’s current proposals as such loss of income would be disastrous for anyone.
“Members have now given us clear direction to ballot on industrial action. We hope that we can soon reach an agreement with the ENO that will see the chorus and stage management workforce get the work, pay and terms and conditions that they need to survive.”
Earlier this year, the ENO’s music director, Martyn Brabbins, announced his resignation following the announcement of the cuts, which also included a proposal to axe 19 orchestral positions and employ remaining musicians on part-time contracts.
“I cannot in all conscience continue to support the board and management’s strategy for the future of the company,” he said.
“Although making cuts has been necessitated by Arts Council England’s interference in the company’s future, the proposed changes would drive a coach and horses through the artistic integrity of the whole of ENO as a performing company, while also singularly failing to protect our musicians’ livelihoods.
“This is a plan of managed decline, rather than an attempt to rebuild the company and maintain the world-class artistic output for which ENO is rightly famed.”
The proposed cuts came after the ENO was removed from Arts Council England’s national portfolio last year, losing its £12.8m annual grant, and told it must move outside London if it wants to qualify for future grants. ACE’s decision was condemned as “cultural vandalism” by Melvyn Bragg and an “ill-thought-through idea” by Richard Mantle, the then general director of the Leeds-based Opera North.
Following a huge public outcry, petitions and questions in parliament, ACE announced extra money and more time for the ENO to transition to a new home. It also said a new business model would allow the company to deliver a substantial opera season every year in London.
This month, the ENO announced it had finally chosen Greater Manchester as its future home. The company said it was excited by “the potential opportunities to collaborate with the region’s vibrant arts ecology, and the chance to inspire and create work with and for new audiences and communities in Greater Manchester”.
