On August 20, 2024, The Welsh National Opera’s choristers began balloting for strike action over proposals to cut jobs and pay by 15 percent.

According to Equity Union, the company’s plans to reduce the chorus will bring the “real threat of compulsory redundancies.”

The union said, “We will not accept compulsory redundancies or the desire of WNO management to make contracts ‘flexible’ solely to their own advantage while adding the precarity of an unsustainable cut to chorus members’ basic earnings.”

The ballot will run through Sept. 4 2024.

The Welsh National Opera has been facing economic issues for months with the company recently announcing changes to its 2024-25 season. The company noted that it will no longer be touring the Bristol Hippodrome in February 2025, and will not be touring Venue Cymru, Llandudno in May 2025.