CONVENTION UPDATE II: FOR MONDAY JUNE 21st - Day 1
CONVENTION UPDATE II: FOR MONDAY JUNE 21st - Day 1
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I. OPENING OF THE CONVENTION
II. SPEECHES
III. RECOMMENDATIONS/RESOLUTIONS
IV. CONVENTION COMMENTS
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I. OPENING OF THE CONVENTION
Walking into the main convention room, you couldn’t help but
wonder how many trees gave their lives for the massive amount
of campaign literature on the tables.
Everyone had some, but the award for sheer volume of pulp went
to RMA Presidential Candidate Ray Hair and Local 47 President
Vince Trombetta, The RMA supporting blog AFMMatters.org had
white plastic megaphones all over which featured the word, “UNITY”.
The vast majority of the material seemed to be from the RMA
candidates and allies.
This year any AFM member could show up and get a guest badge,
no pre-registration needed. Even so, only about half of the area
designated for guests was full.
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II. SPEECHES
There were video messages from Congressman John Conyers (D - MI)
and Congressman Howard Berman (D - CA), then speeches by AFM
President Tom Lee; Roberta Reardon, President of AFTRA; and RIchard
Kline, President of the Union Labor and Services Trades Department.
All the speeches included calls for active participation in recruiting.
President Lee’s speech made several points, including:
1) Last year, new-use and re-use fees were down 9 million.
2) Money from Motion Picture recording was down 7.5 million
from last year.
3) We must adopt to the world today, not the world we wish it were,
or face losing most of the remaining work to the rest of the world
(Or to non-union recording).
4) Locals trying to generate work are hampered by the terms of our
present contracts.
5) We must work for the common good of all members.
President Lee announced that there were 273 eligible delegates from
169 Locals and 19 representatives from organizations such as ICSOM.
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III. RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESOLUTIONS
The task of going through and voting on the Recommendations
and Resolutions began today. First the law committee would finalize
the wording and recommend support or opposition to the Resolution
/Recommendation in question.
-RECOMMENDATION 13 was adopted per Law Committee opinion.
It concerned information sharing between the AFM and LOCALS.
-RECOMMENDATION 25 was adopted per Law Committee opinion.
Charges go through local channels before going to the IEB.
-RESOLUTION 4 was adopted per Law Committee opinion.
Officers roles as contractors in certain areas, namely Musical Theater.
-RESOLUTION 8 was referred back to the IEB.
- RESOLUTION 13 - Substitute Resolution was submitted and ultimately
adopted as per Law Committee opinion.
This was the first Res. to entail much discussion. The majority of those
speaking but not all, were the RMA supporters. Once a couple stood up,
it seems many of the others took their cue and spoke as well. They came
from Boston, NY, Nashville and Anaheim. Ultimately someone called for
the question and the resolution passed without that many voting against
it. At the end it was over a half hour of discussion.
-RESOLUTION 14 failed as per Law Committee opinion.
Scale minimums for players from multiple locals.
-RESOLUTION 18 - A substitute resolution was offered and was passed
as per Law committee opinion.
The legal entity will be:
American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada
Under this umbrella will be two organizations:
American Federation of Musicians
Canadian Federation of Musicians
For the Canadians it seemed to be a matter of National Identity, but also
efficiency of conducting business in Canada and America.
At this point the body recessed until tomorrow, though most of the
committees had meetings schedules for later in the evening.
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III. CONVENTION COMMENTS
There are bastions of concerned members out here in the AFM waiting
to see if we will be truly represented or be subjugated by the
“aristocracy” that thinks anyone who is not “working behind a hot
mic” is a non-entity. The poor put upon RMA…sigh!
On the Observer blog an RMA member was ranting about the equality of
representation….boo hoo, especially if you are a full-time musician,
and a member of the RMA….(I paraphrase).
My question in response was….what is full time? I hope mr.x makes as
much as I do! I don’t work 40 hrs. a week. I own my home, pay my bills,
and buy good quality wine. All exclusively due to music! I am not a member
of the RMA.
What would their response be? What does the RMA want to do with me and the
large group of LA musicians that have had their collective interests pushed
aside by the RMA? People don’t want to burn bridges by “coming out” in
direct opposition to being run over by the “remote possibility” of “some
day” getting a referral for a “real recording date” and somehow come into
the good graces of a benefactor.
The catch 22 for the RMA is that they can’t jump ship or they will be
fi-core. (As if they can’t be replaced by the depth of talent waiting in
the wings.) They know this! The fi-core minute scared the crap out of the
RMA!
They (the RMA) wants to maintain the monopoly for themselves and support
their lifestyles as long as they can. So what else is new?
The hook is that they will do anything they can to get control of the
national contracts! Right now those contracts are in the control of the AFM.
Just my opinion.
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You are right. No composers means no new music to record for the PREPARATION H
commercial. But that isn’t the point here. The point is that you do not invite
the other side into your huddle. You cannot make negotiation plans in front of
the very people you and your lawyer are going to face. We are trying to figure
out how to get more money, benefits, and residuals for our work. What do you think
the other side wants? They want to pay less money, less benefits and residuals
for our work. That is why we are negotiating. That is why we hire lawyers.
This was a negotiation meeting that was sabotaged a union president and
executive officers that were supposed to protect us.
It is a dangerous, anti-musician and anti-union thing to do. In fact, one of
the Kool-Aid consuming ‘NY Ratifiers’ at the caucus table actually spoke about
how much of his work was non-union. Great move! Now you have told employers
that you work non-union. And you did it right in front of the AFM administration
at a negotiation caucus. I bet the employers loved to hear that. Now they know
that the big ‘Ratifiers’ are willing to work non-union. Will the stupidity never
end? Is it stupidity? Or is there some agenda here, some strange philosophy?
So far, no direct answers from President Lee and the IEB.
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[EDITOR'S COMMENT: Can you say the word orchestral? Also you can start
saying the work "recording" when the contracts are in line with the
real global situation. That elite mentality just comes shining through,
doesn't it?]
Sure, but can the many Locals with 50 members or less say “orchestral”? And can
those Locals with no infrastructure say “recording”? How disingenuous of the
COMMITTEE to confuse real facts with (there’s that politically-motivated word,
again) elitism. Elite, my foot!!
[Editor’s comment: Is it your assertion that no one from the small locals work
in orchestras or recording? We’ll let other members comment on your argument.
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UNTIL NEXT TIME,
THE COMMITTEE FOR A MORE RESPONSIBLE LOCAL 47
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