The faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is trying to unionize. The faculty has been highly critical of the school’s leadership for more than a year and recently issued a vote of no confidence in the current president, Paul Hogle.
Last month, full-time, part-time and studio faculty requested that the National Labor Relations Board hold an election to recognize the American Federation of Musicians Local 4 as their representative. The school was notified of the faculty’s intent on May 17.
Leonard DiCosimo, president of AFM Local 4 and executive secretary of the North Shore Federation of Labor, told Signal Cleveland that the faculty wants more transparency from the school and greater input into decisions.
DiCosimo, who is a musician and has taught music, said faculty members have concerns about recent administrative staff cuts. He said they also raised questions about the school’s handling of the sexual harassment investigation into former principal conductor Carlos Kalmar, who was placed on involuntary leave in 2023 and later cleared of wrongdoing. (Kalmar has since sued the school for defamation.)
DiCosimo said it is unclear at the moment exactly how many faculty and staff members qualify to be in the union but estimated the range to be negotiated is between 80 and 150.
In a recent letter to faculty, Hogle described the timing of the union effort as a ploy to take advantage of faculty on summer break.
“We expect that the union organizers believe that they will get more votes this way,” Hogle wrote.
Hogle also suggested that the AFM is not best suited to represent faculty.
“We recognize and appreciate that the Cleveland Orchestra has a relationship with AFM,” Hogle wrote. “But we don’t believe having a performers’ union represent our faculty members would be best for you, our culture, students or our collective legacy.”
DiCosimo said AFM represents many schools.
“The idea that we are only a performers’ union I think is just ignorance of not knowing what we do,” he said.
Cleveland Institute of Music said faculty already have voice but promise change
In a statement to Signal Cleveland, CIM said it “greatly respects the AFM, which is a performing artist union, and the employees’ rights under labor law.”
The statement said that “having a performing artist union represent faculty at CIM is not needed, would not advance the interests of our diverse and talented faculty, and would not advance the mission of CIM to educate our students, the future of classical music.”
The school also said it believes that issues identified come from a small group of faculty and can be addressed through “effective and transparent shared governance.” The school added that faculty already have a seat at the table, but the “system can and should be more efficient and streamlined.”
About its handling of the sexual harassment investigation, the school said it can’t comment, “except to say that a union typically does not have a role in such investigations.”
