Equity votes to support WNO chorus 

Members of performers' union Equity have voted unanimously to pass an emergency motion supporting the Welsh National Opera (WNO) chorus in a dispute over contract changes and compulsory redundancies. 

The vote was taken at Equity’s Annual conference on Sunday, lending weight to the union's previous statements resisting changes to reduce the ensemble's current full-time contracts, which would lead to a 15% annual salary cut.

Equity says that WNO’s plans to reduce and rebalance the chorus's size “can only lead to the real threat of compulsory redundancy” and hopes the vote would "send a message of solidarity" to the chorus members affected.

The conference asked Equity's Council to "provide whatever support is required" to amplify the chorus's campaign and not to accept compulsory redundancies or "WNO management's desire to have the flexibility of a full-time contract with all the precarity of an unsustainable cut to their basic earnings."

WNO has warned it is facing financial difficulties after Arts Council England (ACE) cut its core funding from £6.24m to £4m a year for the 2023-26 period, a 35% reduction. It also receives £4.1m a year from Arts Council Wales.

Last June, an open letter from former opera members warned that a strategic review would reduce the number of full-time orchestra and chorus members to meet funding conditions imposed by ACE.