Musicians in the Welsh National Opera (WNO) orchestra have voted to accept a new deal from management by an overwhelming majority of 97% (of the 97% who responded to the ballot).
It follows a year of negotiations to stave off the prospect of part-time employment and reach an agreement that benefits both the orchestra and the company.
MU General Secretary Naomi Pohl said:“WNO’s new leadership in Adele Thomas and Sarah Crabtree is more collaborative and positive than the MU have ever known it. The MU is reassured that they are fighting to retain a full-time performing company.
“However, we know we are not out of the woods yet. This is an incredibly difficult time for the arts in the UK and the opera sector has been especially hard hit, with WNO disproportionately affected and facing significant ongoing financial challenges.
“We must continue to stand with WNO to campaign for the future integrity of a full-time, full-strength company.”
MU and player committee member Llinos Owen said: “This result gives some much needed assurances for the orchestral players currently in post, and we are pleased that the move to a part-time orchestra is now off the table.
“Whilst this marks the end of our industrial action, we are acutely aware that there have been job losses for many of our friends and colleagues across the company, and that the chorus are currently facing compulsory redundancies.
“The orchestra has lost 10 posts since 2020, and WNO has sustained particularly hard hitting cuts to its public funding, reducing the number of performances we are able to give to our audiences.
“Our new contract enables us as an orchestra to be more firmly embedded in the communities in which we work, and as we put this period of industrial action behind us, we can now work together with our new passionate and innovative General Directors to campaign positively for more sustainable funding for WNO, the opera sector and the Arts in general, so that we can continue to have secure employment, performing world class work across Wales, England, and internationally.”
MU National Organiser for Orchestras Jo Laverty said: “This has been an incredibly challenging year for the whole company.
“My sincere and heartfelt thanks must go to the orchestra committee members and our union steward who have spent countless hours in negotiations representing the orchestra’s views and probing the detail of the offer with strength and dignity.
“We are aware that there are challenges still to come but what we have achieved here is some stability for the orchestra over the coming year, a better agreement and a constructive working relationship with WNO management which we have faith will continue.”
MU Regional Organiser for Wales and South West England Andy Warnock said: “I’m really pleased that we’ve been able to secure an agreement with WNO after a year of campaigning by the orchestra, with fantastic support from audience members, the public, and politicians.
“However, we know that WNO is still in a fragile position overall and want to express our solidarity with Equity members in the chorus.
“Major national companies like WNO need secure funding to support their employed performing forces, which are a crucial part of the cultural ecosystem. WNO’s joint funding from ACE and ACW has been positive for both nations across several decades, and it’s a major problem that a unilateral change to that arrangement in England is still having a devastating effect on culture in Wales.
“It’s essential that WNO retains its full-time performing forces, which we know is the aim of the company’s new leadership, so we need politicians and both Arts Councils in England and Wales to join us for discussions on how that can be achieved.”
Over 14,000 people backed members’ campaign to protect WNO
MU members have been campaigning to protect WNO since the summer of 2024. They set out to keep WNO as a full-time company and stop the proposed 15% pay cut to the orchestra. Their campaign, which included sustained industrial action from September 2024 to March 2025, has achieved both goals.
The campaign has been supported by over 14,000 petition signatures and leading figures in the arts, including Welsh bass-baritone Sir Bryn Terfel and not-for-profit actor Michael Sheen.
It has also received political support from the Members of the Senedd and Members of Parliament and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in England and Wales.
Protecting the future of WNO and the land of song
Members had also been campaigning for Arts Council of Wales and Arts Council England to agree a sustainable funding package to secure WNO’s future.
Their activism ignited a debate that led to theWelsh Government providing an additional £1.5m in funding to support arts organisations in Wales.
MU members are keen to continue their work on this with WNO’s new co-General Director/CEOs Adele Thomas and Sarah Crabtree. Earlier this month, the orchestra joined Thomas and Crabtree onstage as part of a powerful appeal for arts funding to secure WNO’s future.
Welsh National Opera is Wales’s largest arts organisation and one of only two full time professional orchestras in Wales. WNO is also one of only two opera companies producing full-size performances outside of London and South East England.
While the new agreement protects members’ jobs, the orchestra will lose circa ten vacant seats. The union believes a sustainable funding package must account for a full-time, full-size orchestra for Wales alongside its touring future in England and Wales.
The union shares its solidarity with Equity members in the WNO Chorus whose campaign to protect their jobs is ongoing.
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