What can management do to musicians who go on strike?
A strike after a contract expires is in most cases a “protected” labor activity, which means that management cannot fire workers who engage in that activity. However, management is under no obligation to pay those workers when they’re not working, and has the legal right to bring in replacement workers, who may have some rights to their jobs even after a contract has been reached. This almost never happens in the orchestra industry, probably because management saves money when musicians are on strike or otherwise not working (orchestras aren’t “non-profit” for no reason, after all) and thus has no economic incentive to continue to put on concerts. Of course, they also have little economic incentive to settle immediately, which is why the typical orchestra strike goes on for six to twelve weeks.
