NEW YORK (AP) — Performers and other union members at the Metropolitan Opera say they want to work with management to avoid a lockout that would shut down one of the world’s premier opera companies.
Several dozen union members rallied Friday opposite the Met on Manhattan’s West Side.
Tenor Nathan Carlisle said workers want to work with Met General Manager Peter Gelb to find a middle ground.
He called the Met “an amazing place to work.”
Gelb had threatened to lock out the Met’s workers on Friday.
Management agreed late Thursday to a federal mediator’s request to postpone the threatened lockout by 72 hours.
A lockout would disrupt the new opera season for the first time in three decades.
Gelb has demanded that the unions accept salary cuts of about 17 percent.
