FI-CORE / BLOOMBERG ARTICLE / EVENTS

2/24/17
I. FI-CORE

II. MORE POTENTIAL PROBLEMS: BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK

III. EVENTS
…Absolutely guaranteed anonymity – Former Musician’s Union officer
…The one voice of reason in a sea of insanity – Nashville ‘first call’
scoring musician

…Allows us to speak our minds without fear of reprisal – L.A. Symphonic musician
…Reporting issues the Musicians Union doesn’t dare to mention – National touring musician

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I. FI-CORE

Thinking of going FI-Core? Tired of looking over your shoulder
to see if Gordon Greyson is taking pictures or harassing members,..
or one of his minions?

If you do decide to go Fi-Core, this is a letter you might get:

Re: American Federation of Musicians, Local 47 – and – ———–
(Your Resignation letter of ++-++-20++

Dear ——,

This letter responds to your letter of ++-++-20++ to my office.
First, this letter acknowledges receipt of your correspondence
and your request to resign you (misspelled in the letter) membership
in American Federation of Musicians, Local 47 (“Local 47”) as well
as the American Federation of Musicians (the AFM). As of today’s
date, Local 47’s records reflect that you are no longer a member
in good standing of Local 47 and, instead, you have opted to pay
Local 47 a representation fee in accordance with the United States
Supreme Court decision in Communication Workers of America
vs. Beck and the opinion of the National Labor Relations Board
in California Saw and Knife.

Local 47 further understands that, in accordance with the Beck and
California Saw and Knife decisions, you are not objecting to the payment
of full Local 47 dues. Rather, you are merely resigning your membership
in Local 47 and, thereby, forfeiting all rights and membership therein.

We have also forwarding your resignation request to the AFM. You will
receive a separate correspondence from the AFM with regard to your
request to resign from the AFM as those matters are processed directly
by the AFM.

Next, enclosed you will find the following:

1. A written “Certification” of Local 47’s Agency Fee Calculations, for
calendar year 20++, executed by Bernard Kotlin and Co., Local 47’s
outside auditor. As you can see from the text of the Certification, the
current calculation for chargeable expenses, with respect to the
Agency Fee obligation, is currently set at 81.2% of Local 47’s regular
membership dues and work dues.

2. A copy of Local 47’s current Agency Fee policy, which (a) describes
the categories of expenses that Local 47 had deemed chargeable/non-
chargeable and (b) sets forth the manner and method by which those
persons wishing to do so may object to Local 47’s calculations of chargeable
and non-chargeable expenses.

Should you have any further questions regarding the matters set forth in
the enclosures contained in this letter, please direct them to my office.

Very Truly yours,

+++++++++++++++++

Secretary-Treasurer
American Federation of Musicians, Local 47, AFL-CIO

———–

Colleagues,

In case you might not be aware, the whole purpose

of the initial lawsuit was because a member did not

want his dues going to a particular politician. He

wanted that portion of his membership dues back.

In 1968, the Communications Workers of America

(CWA) used union members’ dues, in part, to support

Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s campaign for President

of the United States[54] and Senator Joseph Tydings’

re-election campaign.[45] Harry Beck was a maintenance

worker with the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co.

(C&PT) in Maryland and a CWA organizer.[54][55] Beck

protested the use of his union dues for a political cause

in which he did not believe and asked for a refund.[54]

The CWA refused, arguing that using union dues for

political expenditures was appropriate and legal.[45]

 

In the early 1970s, after disagreeing with national CWA

officials over a union organizing drive in suburban

Baltimore, Maryland, Beck resigned from the union

and began to pay the $10-a-month agency fee.[54][55]

Beck continued to protest the use of his agency fee for

political purposes, and asked the CWA to provide a

more accurate accounting of how much money it spent

on politics.[55] The union refused.[55]

In June 1976, Beck and 19 other non-union members

of the CWA’s bargaining unit at C&PT sued the union

for a refund.[45][51][54][55][56] The National Right to

Work Legal Defense Foundation provided legal counsel

and support to Beck and the other 18 workers.[45][54][55]

Beck quit C&PT in 1979 and moved to Oregon, where he

worked at CWA-organized job at American Telephone &

Telegraph and continued to pay his agency fee.[55]

For more info and history please see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Workers_of_America_v._Beck#cite_note-33

======================================

II. MORE POTENTIAL PROBLEMS: BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK

The article below is from BloombergBusinesweek.
by Josh Eidelson
February 16, 2017

UNIONS ARE LOSING THEIR DECADES LONG ‘RIght-to-Work’
fight.

Mandatory fees are endangered at the Supreme Court,
statehouses. and Congress.

Last year the total share of U.S. workers who belong to a union
fell to 10.7 percent, a record low. That number could go a lot
lower in the next few years. Following decades of declining
membership, unions face an existential crisis as right-to-work
laws being pushed at state and federal levels would ban
their ability to collect mandatory fees from the workers
they represent, a key source of revenue for organized labor.

Once largely confined to the conservative South, right-to-work
is encroaching on unions’ longtime strongholds in the North
and Midwest and, pending a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, could
soon cover a majority of the unionized workforce in the U.S.
Following a 47-year lull, six states in five years have passed
right-to-work laws. “The South is clearly winning this particular
civil war,” says University of California at Santa Barbara
historian Nelson Lichtenstein.

In their first weeks in office, the new Republican governors of
Kentucky and Missouri have already signed right-to-work laws,
making them the 27th and 28th states, respectively, to ban
mandatory union fees. By Feb. 16, New Hampshire’s House
of Representatives will vote on a proposal, endorsed by the
state’s Republican governor and already approved by its Senate,
to become the first right-to-work state in the Northeast. In Iowa,
where right-to-work is already the law, Republicans are looking
to further curb unions’ power with a bill restricting public
employees’ collective bargaining rights.

“Organized labor—it’s really the man behind the curtain in
The Wizard of Oz,” says Matt Patterson, who directs Americans
for Tax Reform’s Center for Worker Freedom, an anti-union
nonprofit. “People aren’t scared of them the way they used
to be.” Right-to-work is now the law in almost every state
where Republicans control the governorship and the state
legislature. The only exception other than New Hampshire
is Ohio, where a sweeping anti-union law was successfully
overturned by a referendum in 2011.

The most expansive change is likely to come from the
Supreme Court, whose 5-4 conservative majority will be
restored if the Senate confirms Neil Gorsuch to fill Justice
Antonin Scalia’s seat. Before Scalia’s death last year, unions
were bracing for a likely defeat in Friedrichs v. California
Teachers Association, a case brought by teachers and
conservative groups who argued that mandatory union
fees violate government employees’ constitutional rights.
Without Scalia, that case deadlocked at 4-4, but several
similar suits are pending in lower courts.

Labor leaders expect the issue could reach the Supreme
Court in time for a ruling this year, making right-to-work
the law of the land for the entire public sector, which
employs about half the 14.6 million U.S. union members.
“There’s not a doubt in my mind that the clock is ticking
on that one,” says Greg Junemann, president of the
International Federation of Professional & Technical
Engineers. Service Employees International Union President
Mary Kay Henry, who before Scalia’s death said her
union was preemptively “preparing to become a voluntary
organization,” sent staff a memo after Donald Trump’s
election win announcing that the union would plan for a
30 percent cut in its budget, almost all of which comes
from dues and fees.

Unions have been trying to get ahead of the challenge. Since
2013 staff members and activists from the 1.6 million-strong
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
have conducted 600,000 one-on-one conversations with
workers covered by AFSCME contracts. AFSCME officials say
they reached a sobering conclusion in 2015 about how the
workers it represents might behave under right-to-work:
While roughly 35 percent would likely pay dues no matter
what, about half could be “on the fence.” The remaining 15
percent or so would likely not pay dues under right-to-work.
“We’ve found that at times we were treating all of our 1.6
million members as if they were activists, and they aren’t,”
says AFSCME President Lee Saunders. “We were taking some
things for granted.”

AFSCME says it’s overhauled how it communicates with
workers, including targeting its e-mails and Facebook
ads so those who are lukewarm on the union are more
likely to get information about obtaining a free associate’s
degree through the union than to see a call to action
with an upraised fist.

The unionization rate in right-to-work states is
less than half the rest of the country’s. Organizers
say letting workers decline to pay fees defunds unions,
diverts staff resources that could otherwise be devoted
to growth, and divides workers—just as Congress
intended when it passed the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act
allowing states to pass right-to-work laws. By 1964,
20 states had banned mandatory fees. After that the
map stayed nearly static for almost half a century,
with just three more states passing right-to-work and
one repealing it.

Then, after the 2010 midterm elections, unions’ flagging
political clout and Republicans’ newfound dominance
in state government ushered in a surge of right-to-work
laws, beginning in 2012 in Indiana and spreading to onetime
union bastions Michigan and Wisconsin. Each new law lets
conservatives in neighboring states claim they need to follow
suit to compete for business. And labor’s failure to deliver
on promises to oust right-to-work backers has helped
embolden Republicans elsewhere.

Republicans in Congress have introduced a bill to make
the nation’s entire private sector right-to-work. Although
it’s unlikely to pass unless Republicans abolish the filibuster,
private-sector unions like the Communications Workers
of America say they’re preparing for the potential loss of
mandatory fees. Mark Mix, president of the nonprofit
National Right to Work Committee, says he jokes with
his staff members about updating their résumés. Once
right-to-work is a nationwide policy, he says, the 62-y
ear-old organization will have completed its mission.
“As soon as we pass this bill,” says Mix, “we’re clearing
house.”

The bottom line: Right-to-work laws are encroaching
on unions’ longtime strongholds in the North and Midwest.

————————-

Colleagues,

Everyone who is a member of the AFM knows

how membership has atrophied over the last few

years, and NOT because of right-to-work. The

reason the AFM membership has been reduced

so drastically is because the AFM does not

represent ALL members, but only the Elites in

Recording and in Orchestras under a CBA.

In 1983, the Los Angeles local has in the area

of 13,000 members. Now? The membership

is little more than 6,000. Why? The Local

concentrates it’s efforts on recording musicians

to the exclusion of everyone else. Work has left,

and the union knows full well what has to be

done to get it back, but rather kiss the ring

of the RMA, as the IEB does as well.

If you want to know who to blame for the

work loss, there are many reasons, but locally

look no further than the board of your AFM

Local, OR the fact that their hands are tied

by the control of the RMA over the AFM.

Let’s be clear, the COMMITTEE fully supports

an honest union, a union that DESERVES the

support of the rank and file, which Local 47

does not.

If we didn’t care, why would we still be here?

If we  didn’t care we’d have wiped are hands

of this corrupt local long ago.

THE COMMITTEE

====================================

III. EVENTS
DEAN AND RICHARD
are now at Culver City Elks the first 
Friday of 
every month.
7:30pm-10:30pm,
11160 Washington Pl.
Culver City, 90232
310-839-8891

————————————-

LA WINDS JAZZ KATS 584
NO COVER, NO MINIMUM.
Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month at
Viva Cantina
7:30-10:00.
900 Riverside Drive, 
Burbank.

Free parking across the street at Pickwick Bowl.
Come hear your favorite charts played the way
they 
should 
be. 

We are in the back room called
the Trailside Room. 


Come on down.

Guaranteed to swing.

——————————

2/24/17

DON’T MISS THE
THE PHIL NORMAN TENTET
AT THE
NEWPORT BEACH JAZZ PARTY

February 23rd thru February 26th
Marriott Hotel & Spa
900 Newport Center Drive
Newport Beach, CA 92660

Tentet’s performance
Friday, February 24th @ 2:30pm

For Tickets: 949-759-5003
www.newportbeachjazzparty.com

Remembering the classic sounds & variations of
12 jazz legends to include:

The George Shearing Quintet
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
The Modern Jazz Quartet
The Cal Tjader Quintet
the Ahmad Jamal Trio
Miles, Dizzy and more

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3/1/17

FREE ADMISSION GLENDALE NOON CONCERTS

Info about upcoming programs through JUNE 2017
at the Free Admission Glendale Noon Concerts series
(concerts every first & third Wednesday at 12:10-12:40 pm)
are listed at http://www.glendalenoonconcerts.blogspot.com

Jacqueline Suzuki
Curator, GNC
818 249 -5108

On Wednesday MARCH 1, 2017 at 12:10-12:40 pm
the Free Admission Glendale Noon Concerts will feature
viola d’amore player Adriana Zoppo, flutist Sherril Woods
and cellist Alexa Haynes-Pilon performing Telemann and Quantz
at the Sanctuary of Glendale City Church,
610 E. California Ave. (at Isabel St), Glendale, CA 91206.
For more information, email [email protected]
or call (818) 244- 7241.

Sanctuary of Glendale City Church,
610 E. California Ave. (at Isabel St), Glendale, CA 91206.
For more information, email [email protected]
or call (818) 244- 7241.

Thank you!
Jacqueline Suzuki
Curator, Glendale Noon Concerts
818-249-5108

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3/18/16
SFV SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Mar. 18, 2017 –
Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center
Tuttle: By Steam or By Dream Overture
Inaugural Performance
Prokofiev: Symphony #1 in D major (Classical)
Ben-Haim: Pastorale Variée for
Clarinet, Harp and Strings
Geoff Nudell, clarinetist
Beethoven: Romance for Violin and Orchestra
Ruth Bruegger, violinist
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Other concerts in the series

May 13, 2017 – Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center

Saint-Saens: Bacchanale from “Samson and Delilah”
Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite No. 2 in C major
Egizi: Orchestral Suite 
“In Memoria di Mio Padre”
Inaugural Performance

Programs subject to change

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3/1/17

ASMAC ‘First WEDNESDAYS’
presents:

———-
Legendary and Award-winning Recording Engineers

Al Schmitt, Joel Iwataki,

and Tommy Vicari

Moderated by: Renowned harpist  Gayle Levant

Wednesday, March 1, 2017!–
Meet & Greet: 7 pm   •   Program: 7:30 pm

Musicians Union Local 47
817 Vine Street, Hollywood, CA 90038

ASMAC is excited to present THREE world famous
recording and mix engineers as they discuss
their insight on working with arrangers,
composers and orchestrators.

Topics include:

Tips and tricks for arrangers, composers and orchestrators.
How a recording engineer can help you.
How you can help an recording engineer.
Preparing for a recording session.
Technology and acoustic recording.
Combining various orchestral and electronic elements.
When is instrument separation important –
when should it be avoided.
Working with virtual orchestras and sample libraries.
The final mix process and preparing stems.
Virtual plugins.

Much Much More !!!

Wednesday, March 1, 2017!–
Meet & Greet: 7 pm  •   Program: 7:30 pm

$10 Admission
SCL Members – $5
FREE for ASMAC & Local 47 members

Musicians Union Local 47
817 Vine Street
Hollywood, CA 90038

For more information on ASMAC and upcoming events:
(818) 994-4661 www.asmac.org

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3/5/17

Song of the Angels Flute Orchestra
in concert!

Our next concert, “Celebrating Spring” is quickly approaching!
Conductor: Charles Fernandez

Concert location:
Pasadena Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church,
310 N. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena 91103

Tickets are now available online at the usual location:

Concert Tickets

Concert program includes:
•    Gounod – Petite Symphonie (1st movement only)
•    Bloch – Prayer for a Jewish Life (David Shostac)
•    Blavet – Concerto (1st movement, Debbie MacMurray)
•    Mozart – Flute and Harp Concerto (David Shostac & Naomi Alter)
*** Intermission ***
•    Vaughan Williams – Thomas Tallis Theme
•    McIntosh, – Romance for Bassoon (Charles Fernandez)
•    Alter – Introspective Blues (David Miller)
•    Gluck – Dance of the Blessed Spirits (Frederick Staff)
•    Fernandez – Quiet House and a Mouse
•    Selden – When I Fall in Love (Fred Selden)
•    Encore: Fernandez – Closer Walk with Thee

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3/25/17

The Musicians at Play presents
Patrick Williams Big Band Live at the Moss
with special guests Arturo Sandoval and Peter Erskine
Saturday- March 25th, 2017 8:00PM


Click “Buy Tickets” to reserve your tickets up to 12:00 p.m. on the
day of the show (Remaining tickets will be available at door at show time.)

Award-winning composer Patrick Williams presents The Big Band Live!
featuring special guests Arturo Sandoval and Peter Erskine.

VIP – Doors 7:00 p.m. early entry – refreshments

General & Premium – Doors open 7:30 p.m.

Concert starts: 8:00 p.m. (there will be a brief intermission)*

www.musiciansatplay.org

——————————————

3/26/17

LOS ANGELES SYMPHONIC WINDS
Subscription Concert 3 – Calabasas High School
Stars of the Los Angeles Symphonic Winds
Revel in the artistry of some of the LA Winds’ most
acclaimed performers.
-Geoff Nudell and Parker Gaims (now a member

of the US Marine Corps Band) play Felix Mendelssohn’s

virtuosic Two Concert Pieces.

Also on the program will be two works by the LA Winds’

resident composer,

– Charles Fernandez
• Sunday March 26, 2017
• 2:30 p.m.

Performing Arts Education Centers.

——————————————
You can read all previous offerings at:
http://www.responsible47.com
UNTIL NEXT TIME,

THE COMMITTEE FOR A MORE RESPONSIBLE LOCAL 47

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