I. OCTOBER 22nd SPECIAL ELECTION FOR SECRETARY TREASURER
DAVID SCHUBACH FOR SECRETARY-TREASURER!
II. BOARD CUTS ENTIRE ADVERTISING BUDGET FOR SELECT SERVICES
III. HEARD ABOUT THE RMA MEETINGS
IV. COMMENTS
Greetings Colleagues,
DON’T FORGET THE OCTOBER 22nd MEETING!
We have an update on the Local 47 “Scuttling” email. As you’ll remember,
the Local sent out an email on September 26th saying they had scuttled the
NES session. We now have confirmation that President Espinosa was sent an
email by the publisher of Film Music Magazine on Saturday, September 22nd
at 6:41p.m., informing him that the session did indeed happen, and asking for
his comment. This notice was also sent to John Acosta, Electronic Media
Services Director and the president of the RMA.
President Espinosa still sent the “Scuttling” email four days later. If you find
this case of dishonestly or incompetence as troubling as we do, please make
sure to show up at the October 22nd meeting and let your feelings be known.
You don’t have to make flowery speeches; the numbers of attendees will speak
volumes.
There should be some accountability for defrauding the membership in our
own publications, much less dishonesty toward members at any time.
I. OCTOBER 22nd SPECIAL ELECTION FOR SECRETARY TREASURER
YOU CAN ONLY VOTE IN PERSON! If you cannot make it, please SEND
A SUB!
At the October 22nd general membership meeting, the membership has only
two choices: The status quo or the future.
When we heard Ms. Lashinsky was going to be the interim Secretary, we
had high hopes and thought it only fair to reserve judgment until we saw how
she performed her interim duties.
We were sorely disappointed to find that she has unfortunately adopted and
continued her predecessor’s practices in obstructing members from receiving
information due them under very specific bylaws. On point, Ms. Lashinsky
played exactly the same games to delay and avoid compliance with the by-law
that requires her to produce, for any member “on demand,” the auditor’s report
on the Local’s finances.
Ms. Lashinsky has been in step with the Espinosa administration–in fact
has been part of it and at one with it–for years. As a consequence, she has
been a willing participant in some of the most obviously questionable decisions
of the Espinosa administration, from raises in the quorum that cost you members
your voice for over two years, the dismantling of our rank and file services,
(including the recent elimination of the advertising budgets for Studio 47,
CD/Radio airplay promotions area and Referral Service,) to the repeated attempts
by the Espinosa Administration to go against member-voted mandates and the
attempted hijacking of our delegates’ votes at the AFM convention.
WE HAVE ANOTHER OPTION! THE PATH TO OUR FUTURE IS CLEAR…
With the announcement of David Schubach’s entrance into the election for
Secretary, the path to our Local’s future is perfectly clear.
We don’t need more yes-people for the current power structure; we need to
advance the re-vitalization and reform of our Local by seizing this opportunity
to replace their hand-picked successor to the 22-plus-year retiring cornerstone
of the old regime which has, by its incredible inertia, trapped this town and its
work in industrial quicksand.
The best thing about former Vice-President Schubach’s announcement is that
it gives specifics of his qualifications and establishes a clear track record of
helping you, the rank and file, in tangible and concrete ways. This won’t be
the usual lesser-of-two-evils flip-of-the-coin. You can sense exciting change
brewing in the union. David Schubach is EXACTLY the kind of officer we need at this
very crucial time in our Local’s history. Don’t fear change; embrace it.
In case you missed it, here is his election announcement:
————-
Local 47 Friends & Colleagues,
Are you better off now than you were three years ago? Is our Union? It is time
to restore your voice at Local 47! Your future is being decided right now without
your input. To ensure that our Union works for ALL members, I announce
that I am a candidate for office.
DAVID SCHUBACH for Secretary-Treasurer!
Monday, October 22, 7pm. In-Person Voting Only
Special Election at the membership meeting. Come early to register.
Every vote is crucial! Only full members with their dues current can vote.
You must attend the membership meeting to vote. No absentee ballots.
Visit: www.davidschubach.com
ABOUT DAVID SCHUBACH…
1. 2-term Local 47 Vice President
-A strong advocate for all members – recording, symphony, theater & freelance
– Expanded the Referral Service, Recording Studio & CD Sales departments
2. Proven independent and experienced leadership
-Fought against corruption and waste
-Guarded members’ info by changing social security numbers to account #s
-Instituted written jobs descriptions and accountability for Local 47 staff
3. Helped thousands of members gain employment
-Brought the Network Referral Service to its highest level
-The Network was widely-regarded as the best referral service in the AFM
4. Developed & championed the SELA contract
-Helped freelance musicians receive health & pension benefits
-A 1½ year project strongly resisted by the board & trustees
5. Strongly advocated making private teaching Union work
-More members could qualify for health & pension benefits
6. Built alliances with other entertainment unions & industry organizations
-Lobbied state legislators with the Recording Artists Coalition
-Past chairman of the Entertainment Industry Business Council
7. Successful owner/operator of a retail music store
-Proven entrepreneurial business expertise
Change is happening. Be part of it!
If you only come to one membership meeting in 2 years, this must be the
one! Elect an officer who has shown he will be responsible to you – all of
you! See you on October 22!
David Schubach
The candidate you can trust to get the job done!
————
COLLEGUES! IT’S YOUR JOB!
The COMMITTEE fully endorsed David Schubach for Secretary.
If you were one of those who didn‘t bother to vote in the last election
because you figured it was a shoe-in, only to be shocked and dismayed
at the outcome, now’s the time to make up for that mistake!
We need you at the October 22nd meeting to continue our re-assertion
of the rank and file’s rights and voice!
Voting requires your presence. If you cannot be at the meeting, you’re not
off the hook. This is as important as any gig so please SEND A SUB! The
more people we turn out, the closer we get to an unambiguous statement of
what we all want.
Our future is in your hands, please take part.
============
II. LOCAL 47 CUTS ENTIRE ADVERTISING BUDGET FOR SELECT SERVICES
No one can say this board doesn’t have chutzpa. The Executive Officers have cut the
ENTIRE advertising budget for:
1) The Referral Service
2) The CD Sales and Radio Airplay Department
3) Studio 47
One of our sources at the Local tells us the Officers’ intended excuse
will be that they expect the website will make up for the total lack of
any advertising dollars.
Those trying to work in those areas are exceptional and dedicated employees
and members, trying their best to serve the membership in an atmosphere
being made more and more difficult by having the very tools of their
success undermined and crippled by Executive Officers with an agenda,…
and strong puppet strings attached.
Here’s only one of the boards’ most obvious lapses in logic: Once this
website (only YEARS late) is available, how will anyone know it’s there?
Will they ADVERTISE it? But there’s no budget for that, is there?
It is obvious that the Executive Officers are redoubling their efforts to
render these member services useless, thus potentially causing other
members to quit. We defy you to come up with a reasonable explanation
as to how this helps you fellow members
============
III. HEARD ABOUT THE RMA MEETINGS?
We’ve talked to several of those who’ve attended one of the five RMA
meetings last month. The gist was that they’re going ahead with their
attempt to bilk the AFM for over a million dollars with an absurd charge
concerning dues collected on promulgated agreements. Our research tells us
that the moment an employer accepts and signs a contract for a particular
job that contract is confirmed and totally legit. End of story.
But get this. At the meetings a Powerpoint presentation was presented,
then fliers were passed out, actually soliciting donations to help pay for
the RMA leadership’s little project.
Trouble is, most aren’t buying it. Some of the members attending have
said, “HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT THERE’S MORE WORK NOW
WHEN I AND MANY OF MY FRIENDS ARE NOTICING THE
OPPOSITE?”
Also at one of the meetings, the question was asked, “What happens if
the money runs out before the case is finished, as has happened so many
times?”
After paying their Annual RMA Dues, and soliciting members to join the
PMG (Another $100), they actually have the gall to ask those showing up
to the meetings for EVEN MORE MONEY to help in the RMA leadership’s
latest attempt to ruin that which they no longer control: the AFM.
AN ALMOST UNIMAGINABLE ARROGANCE AND GREED
Think for a moment. Can you imagine a small group so self-centered that
when they didn’t get their way at the AFM convention, they trump up
any excuse to attack our Federation.
Because the AFM no longer has the supple spine to bow to their every
bullying tactic, this small cabal is now trying to destroy the AFM, an
organization that is over 100 years old and with still over 90,000 members.
=============
V. COMMENTS
The views expressed here are those of the participating readers
and not necessarily those of the COMMITTEE.
——————————————-
Dear Committee,
Leslie Lashinsky’s “Campaign email” – shocking by what it says – more
shocking by what it doesn’t say!
PLAYING ON EMOTIONS – THE BEST PLATFORM LESLIE COULD COME
UP WITH
“Save the Secretary” indeed! Leslie is INTERIM Secretary, not
Secretary.
Leslie’s tone is “help me keep my gig.” “HELP ME, OBIWAN!”
Why? because that’s the best she could come up with regarding why she
should win the election! “I need to be elected…” “My fate will be determined…”
“My future depends on you…” “please be there for me…”
(You notice she doesn’t actually say, “Please vote for me.”)
She’s asking to be rescued!! Everybody come and save the Damsel in
distress from losing “her gig!”
NO EXPERIENCE, NO RESUME
This is OUR MONEY we’re talking about!
“musical and leadership skills and experience needed to serve with
strength, compassion and creativity” – this is only an exercise in
creative writing, not a resume! – You’ll notice she HAS NO RESUME
to present for this kind of work. She HAS no “experience” in this
kind of job. We don’t need someone with “music skills” to be Secretary/
Treasurer.
We need someone with proven business skills, accounting skills, and
LOTS of experience running a business!
WHAT “LEADERSHIP SKILLS?”
Does the above sound like a person with leadership skills to you?!
“great at this job” – what?! she’s only had it for a couple of months!
How could she claim she’s “great” at it? What track record does she
have as an Officer? Zero, zippo, zilch!
As for “leadership,” so far Leslie does whatever Hal, Vince and Lewis
tell her to do. Considering the current Administration’s agenda to close
down all services to Members, do we really need another nail in the coffin?
PROVEN RESISTANCE TO MEMBERS’ REQUESTS
Compassion?
– Let’s ask member Charles Fernandez about how much compassion Leslie
expressed in her letter to him, when he requested a financial accounting as
allowed in our Bylaws.
– Ask Charles if Leslie is still pretending not to have Paul Castillo’s letter in
the minutes, where Paul demands Vince Trombetta’s resignation.
– “bridge-builder” – yeah, unless she doesn’t want to give you information,
or doesn’t want your letter printed in the Overture.
Let’s ask Candidate for Secretary/Treasurer David Schubach how “compassionate”
Leslie was, as she pointedly confronted him, unprovoked – in the presence of
other members at the Indie Music Conference last weekend – rudely reminding
him that it’s “illegal to campaign on Local #47 property.” As if David didn’t know
the rules! He was VP for four years. He was only there to help man the FMA Booth
for the Conference as a volunteer, and never mentioned his candidacy for Sec/Treasurer
at all!
I was embarrassed by her belittling of David’s integrity.
If I were Secretary, and members asked for financials, I hope I would be more
agreeable to conforming to the Bylaws.
Thanks to Hal’s revealing statements at the last General Meeting, at least we
now know that the main reason our Officers are resisting giving us financial
info is because THEY DON’T HAVE A BUDGET!
Do we really need one more person with no accounting skills whatsoever
in this administration? Should the weak link be the Secretary/Treasurer?
I won’t beat this horse any more. We know what color it is.
Please vote for David Schubach and avoid this nightmare.
=============
Dear Comm 47,
In reading the latest mailing, I think you have lost sight of your mission.
The issue is that the Union leadership has failed to be responsive to its own
membership! In reaction, a few musicians have chosen to declare their Beck
rights and become non-members, leaving the Union and all of its membership
to the consequences. I am very put off by what appears a kind of promotion
of the fi-core musician. The Comm 47, ( in keeping with its watchdog mission),
keep its focus on the failed leadership that has lead to this turn of events that
divides our brotherhood.
—————-
Hi,
I have been receiving your emails for many months and in general have been
a big supporter of your efforts and views. We do indeed need to take back the
local for the others of us, away from the elites that control it.
Having said that, I am dismayed at your support for the non-union fi-core people.
I am a union member and will always remain a union member, not a quitter. These
people hurt our cause by quitting the union, no matter for what reason. The right
thing to do is to STAY IN THE UNION, vote, organize, and change it. Change doesn’t
happen overnight, it takes time and patience. Being a non-union worker who undercuts
union contracts was something I was taught to be ashamed of and it is still that way.
Think of this: If we eventually win our battle to break the monopoly of work by the
elite “in-crowd” and start to spread the work around, what have we gained if the
contracts have been broken and we are working for peanuts with no protections.
That’s what I call throwing the baby out with the bath water. Let’s act like responsible
union musicians and do this the right way, not by quitting the union.
One final thought. Yes, I have been asked to work fi-core. It almost always seems
to be by a contractor or EMPLOYER, in other words someone who would benefit from
my selling out the union. Let’s make sure we think hard about who are our friends
and who are really “wolves in sheep’s clothing”
Please get your newsletter efforts back on track and fight for us WITHIN the union!
Thank you.
—————-
In the last e-mailing I read this:
“This is whining: quote from your email: “it’s the Espinosa Administration policies and
conduct that drove many musicians to choose fi-core status to begin with.” Come on!!!
Stop whining, look in the mirror and put the blame where it belongs. No one can “drive
you” to do anything without your permission.”
What does this person think? That we all live off of trust funds and do music for fun?
Or maybe we all own our own Fortune 500 companies and have no bills to worry about?
Reality-check, my friend – if we’re not making enough of a living from music, we are
doing something else to pay the bills; and some of us would rather keep doing music
for a living. Working “within the system” as the reader states earlier in their e-mail is
fine if the system ‘works for you’. If it works against you, then nobody is forcing you
to eat and pay your rent and bills, but it’s a good idea to find a way to do that without
putting yourself in financial jeopardy.
——————
In the most recent newsletter was a comment I would like to respond to. The writer did
not sign the comment so I will just call him Mr. Condescension.
Dear Mr. Condescension:
You apparently approve of activism (your story about Pacifica Radio) when it is for a
cause you support. You make the same mistake as Hal Espinosa et al. by insinuating
that the people who post here are “union busters,” “whiners,” “immature,” etc. presumably
because they threaten you and your ilk, the status-quotitians.
The fact is that the vast majority of current dissenters in the Local 47/RMA saga are
protestors and reformers, not busters. Some believe, with sound logic by the way, that
the cosmology in LA desperately needs reform, and reform is key to the future viability
of the union. You may disagree but there is nothing irrational, childish or knee-jerk
about that position.
Rather than blaming these protestors and reformers for weakening the union why don’t
you consider placing responsibility where many of us think it really belongs, with 47
leadership and RMA oligarchy? These people are weakening the union by failing to
understand that the rank-and-file aren’t necessarily going to simply roll over and accept
their proclamations of acting in everyone’s best interest, proclamations they have come
to disbelieve through their own very real experiences.
You admonish readers to work within the system and not avail themselves of Fi-Core
status. Well I’ve got news for you, these musicians ARE working within the system, the
American system, which fortunately safeguards the economic rights of its citizens.
Activism seems to be something you would support in theory, but not when it threatens
you and your fellow sycophants. That’s the beauty of the system.
Rick Blanc
—————-
Thank you for continuing your great work.
============
Colleagues,
We are depending on you to use your voice and your vote at the October 22nd meeting!
Survival of our Local requires change, be part of it.
UNTIL NEXT TIME,
THE COMMITTEE FOR A MORE RESPONSIBLE LOCAL 47