Symphony, musicians agree on contract

The Spokane Symphony and the union representing its 70 musicians said they reached agreement on a four-year labor contract that calls for pay increases of between 3 percent and 4.5 percent annually.

Musicians are paid by units of time called “services,” which are a two-and-a-half-hour increments spent either in productions or rehearsals. The new contract also calls for musicians to get paid for 190 services per year versus the current 156, said Annie Matlow, the Symphony’s communicatons director.

The current average wage of a Spokane Symphony musician is about $12,500 a year, Matlow said.

The new contract “will provide for a competitive wage contributing to the institution’s ability to attract and retain musicians,” the Symphony said in a press release.

The Symphony is preparing to move to the renovated Fox Theater for the 2007 season.

Albany, N.Y

Ex-CEO must repay excessive salary

A judge has ordered former New York Stock Exchange chief Richard Grasso to pay back tens of millions of dollars from the compensation package that the state’s Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has labeled excessive, a Spitzer spokesman said Thursday.

The trial-level judge, who issued a partial summary judgment against Grasso, will decide separately how much he should repay from the $187.5 million compensation package and dismissed his claim for another $48 million from the exchange, said Spitzer spokesman Darren Dopp.

Spitzer has been trying to recover some of the $187.5 million pay package Grasso received in 2003. An internal NYSE review known as the Webb report claimed up to $156.7 million of the pay package was excessive compared with most U.S. corporations.

Grasso has argued the exchange’s officers were aware of the package when it was approved.

Grasso’s attorney, Gerson A. Zweifach, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The decision could be appealed.

New York

Wal-Mart to limit sales of prepaid cell phones

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to limit each customer to two prepaid cell phones per purchase amid complaints that entrepreneurs are buying the subsidized handsets by the hundreds to resell at a profit, according to people familiar with the matter.

The new limit on the phones, effective last week, was disclosed to the Associated Press by persons at two national cell carriers. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

Wal-Mart declined to confirm the change from its prior limit of three prepaid phones per customer.

The phones in question, sold under brands including TracFone and GoPhone from Cingular Wireless, are priced as low as $20 and $30.