It appears likely there will be no negotiations next week between management and the musicians at the Minnesota Orchestra. In announcing the cancellation of the 2012-13 season, last week, management issued an invitation to bargaining, under the supervision of federal mediation, for May 21-23.
The union responded with a series of questions that it said needed to be answered before the musicians would consider returning to negotations. http://bit.ly/boardquestions
Management argued that the questions largely did not bear on the negotiations -- other than the health of the endowment. A management spokeswoman said some of that information was provided, which musicians acknowledged as "some limited financial information."
On Wednesday, management's attorney said that if the musicians did not confirm by 5 p.m. that they would agree to meet next week that "we will take that as a rejection of our offer, will remove them from our calendars and we will proceed with other options for resuming negotiations."
A spokesman for the musicians said the union is not rejecting the offer. 5 p.m. Wednesday has come and gone, and the union spokesman said, it is now up to management whether to cancel the talks.
