The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts received
a $25
million bailout from the federal government (read taxpayers) as part of the
recent coronavirus stimulus bill. Hours later it laid off the entire National
Symphony Orchestra. The nearly 100 members comprising the orchestra will no
longer receive paychecks until the Center reopens, the Washington Free Beacon
reported. The Kennedy Center is tentatively scheduled to reopen on May 10th,
but that is extremely unlikely given COVID-19 projections and government’s
rapidly swelling propensity to control everything and everybody. If the center
remains closed past May, the musicians will also lose their health insurance.
Nice timing.
Frankly,
the Kennedy Center had no business getting a bailout as part of the emergency
coronavirus package, or “CARES Act.” However, since it was handed $25
million, it had even less business furloughing its entire orchestra immediately
after being granted the largesse. This would be as if GM and Chrysler had laid
off most of their employees after receiving their massive bailouts in 2009. The
stimulus package was intended to provide relief for those who are left
unemployed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, not to cause folks to become
unemployed. In fact, the law’s text states the monies granted were to
“cover operating expenses required to ensure the continuity of the John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and its affiliates,” including “for
employee compensation and benefits,” and specifically includes “artists and
performers” as employees.
The timing
of the decision to stop paying the musicians seems preposterous, especially
since the Kennedy Center also possesses an endowment of almost $100 million. The
Washington Post reports that Ed Malaga, head of the union that represents the
musicians, claims that his charges had previously expressed a willingness to
discuss ways to accommodate the Center during this pandemic. And that the
parties’ collective bargaining agreement requires the Center to provide six
weeks’ notice before it can stop paying the musicians for economic reasons.
Kennedy
Center president Deborah Rutter said that everyone should share the burden in
this crisis and added that the taxpayer bailout would “provide long-term cash
flow for essential personnel to ensure that we can reopen.” Essential personnel
like, say, Deborah Rutter, no doubt.
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