Orchestral Maneuvers: Has Henry Fogel Learned a Lesson?
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Until the last round of talks began, it seemed neither Fogel nor the musicians would budge from their entrenched stands on the health insurance issue. When Fogel arrived at last week’s meeting, though, he brought new proposals that no longer insisted on insurance-premium payments from the players. “That demand just suddenly disappeared,” said one mystified member of the musicians’ nine-person negotiating team.
Fogel’s about-face broke the stalemate, but it also raised a few troubling questions. “My goal,” said Fogel earlier this week, “was to involve the musicians in some way in the cost of their medical care and get those costs down,” a goal he says was achieved in the settlement. Throughout the talks, the musicians say, Fogel insisted his stance was the result of a mandate from the orchestra’s board of trustees. But privately the musicians suspect Fogel may have hoped to put a feather in his cap by becoming the first orchestra manager in the nation to win concessions on health insurance premium payments, a move that would have established Fogel as an ace negotiator and created new guidelines for orchestra negotiations elsewhere. If, on the other hand, Fogel was executing a mandate from his board of directors, the board apparently wasn’t willing to stick to its guns, leaving Fogel the fall guy.
The Chicago restaurant scene is springing back to life this fall. Among the more interesting developments is the unveiling of Vivo, an Italian cafe in the heart of the market district at 838 W. Randolph; it’s owned and designed by Jerry Kleiner, one of the owners of the nightclub Shelter. Hale De Mar’s OakTree restaurant, long a popular fixture at the comer of Oak and Rush, has reopened on the sixth floor of the Bloomingdale’s building at 900 N. Michigan. And the Hyatt Regency Chicago has added a musical twist to its Sunday brunch in the All Seasons Cafe: diners will find a tuxedoed pianist in the kitchen serenading them while they await their freshly made omelettes.
