Purge in Phoenix?

Eight veteran musicians in the Phoenix Symphony have filed age-discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Phoenix office of the National Labor Relations Board has charged the orchestra with violating the National Labor Relations Act.

Both actions stem from "charges of wrongful termination, allegations of retaliation, and the charge that the symphony's top, veteran players are being forced to take demotions or leave the symphony so they can be replaced with younger, more compliant players," Phoenix New Times blogger Stephen Lemons writes:

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2009/03/michael_christie_saint_or_sata.php

Among the "EEOC eight" is Peter Rosato, the former principal violist of the Richmond Symphony, who left Richmond in the early 1980s to take the first chair in the Phoenix Symphony's viola section. Rosato "is embroiled in a legal fight with the symphony over unpaid wages and breach of contract, and was recently terminated," Lemons reports.