Manhattan School of Music Reaches Contract Agreement with Precollege Faculty

After one of the first strikes in the school's history, the MSM Precollege faculty has announced a new contract agreement

After working under an expired seven-year-old contract, faculty at Manhattan School of Music's Precollege Division have secured an agreement for a new contract after a strike and a semester-long negotiation.

The agreement includes raising the wage floor minimum by 70% over the course of the contract while prohibiting class size increases.

The MSM Precollege Union stated that other significant gains for the faculty include new minimum pay rates for directors of large ensembles, orchestral conductors, and teachers whose students are assessed a surcharge.

"From the beginning, teachers were clear about their priorities: MSM must pay wages that reflect industry standards, and students' quality of education must be protected," said a statement from the MSM Precollege Union. "Our new contract will be good for teachers, good for students, and essential to the long-term health of the MSM Precollege program.

"These difficult months of tireless organizing for a fair contract have helped to grow the union's membership and foster a new generation of union leaders. Teachers invested their time and skills—without compensation—to strengthen our union and it is now stronger than ever. Supportive connections have been established in unprecedented ways with our state and local elected officials and our sibling unions in music, Local 802 AFM and AGMA. It has also become clear, once and for all, that the Precollege Division is a major source of revenue for MSM and that the School is well-positioned to pay its faculty competitive rates.

"Precollege teachers demonstrated decisively that their relationship with students and their families are at the heart of MSM’s viability as an institution. We fought, we won, and we are stronger than we have ever been! Onwards!"