Good news from the RCM

It looks like the Faculty Association's efforts have worked out in the end. The Collaborative Piano Blog is reporting that bargaining dates are now being scheduled as we speak! This a very happy ending for all involved - yay!

All's not well at the Royal Conservatory

A great many of you have friends, mentors, and colleagues at the Royal Conservatory, heck their faculty list reads like a who's who of some of the best names in pedagogy today. At the very least Dr. Christopher Foley, who's Collaborative Piano Blog most of you will have read, has been there since 2003.

Well right now those musicians, and teachers, and so by proxy the students, are in a little bit of a pickle. There's a nice shiny new building, a great new theatre, and top notch concerts by artists from around the world. But the people that work there have been without a contract since 2007. The Conservatory has told them that they're not willing to sit down and negotiate a new agreement with them.

Not that they can't reach an agreement, mind you, but that the Conservatory will not no longer sit down to discuss them, despite both sides having begun negotiations in good faith earlier this year.

As it stands now the teachers and staff at the university (doh!) Conservatory are working without a contract, hoping day to day that the Conservatory will continue to employ them, pay them, and give them benefits. As many of these people are my friends and colleagues (and even if they weren't,) I think that this warrants some attention and needs to be fixed and I hope that you do too.

They've launched a new Facebook page that they would like you folks to take a look at: The RCM Faculty Association Page Go, check it out, become a fan. I'll try to keep you folks updated on this as it develops.