As I write this column, we have concluded the second round of our Sound Recording Labor Agreement (SRLA) negotiations. We have made some progress but are still far from an agreement. While things are moving slowly, I am pleased to report the positive impact of rally we held March 11 in Times Square. I thank Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) for attending and offering his support. We were able to send a clear message to the major labels that they face a strong and united front. You can read more about the rally on page 8.

Stronger Together: SSD and Organizing Services

This issue of the International Musician turns the spotlight on symphonic musicians and our Symphonic Services Division (SSD). This is an area where we have seen some strong organizing campaigns. While symphony orchestras are already among the most highly organized institutions in North America, we are making new strides with smaller groups, summer festival orchestras, and music teachers. Many symphony musicians supplement their income by working as music teachers as well as performing and teaching at summer music festivals. They deserve the protections and fair pay provided by collective agreements in these positions as well.

The AFM SSD and Organizing Services Department are actively working with and supporting musicians of the True Concord Voices and Orchestra, members of Local 33 (Tucson, AZ). We are waiting for management to recognize the union but have achieved over 75% of musicians in support of organizing.

The AFM is working with Local 380-443 (Binghamton-Oneonta, NY) and musicians of the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, who have signed union cards. Musicians of the Vista Philharmonic at Groton Hill Music Center, who won an election to be represented by Local 173-300 (Fitchburg, MA) in 2023, are currently negotiating for their first collective bargaining agreement.

We’ve also led successful organizing campaigns with music education institutions at Sistema New Brunswick with Local 815 (Saint John, NB) and Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA) with Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA). The Heart of Los Angeles YOLA site had a National Labor Relations Board election in early December 2025 and won union certification overwhelmingly. Later in the month, the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) certified Local 47 at the YOLA Camino Nuevo site and a new site at Cisneros.

If you are performing in an orchestra, a summer festival, or teaching at an institution without the protections of a collective agreement, reach out to your local or the Organizing Services Department to learn more about how we can support an organizing campaign in your workplace.

A Proactive Partnership

These successes are the result of our Organizing Services Department and SSD working together like never before. By integrating these departments, we are shifting from a reactive model to a proactive one. This partnership provides a Federation-wide support system that reaches musicians across the United States and Canada, ensuring that no local or ensemble has to navigate the complexities of labor relations alone.

The enhanced Organizing Department does more than just sign cards; it empowers musicians. Organizing also works closely with the AFM Education Department to train both locals and musicians on union organization. We are providing musicians with the tools to understand their rights, build internal committees, and develop the collective leverage necessary to secure fair contracts. Whether it is a regional orchestra in Ontario or a freelance ensemble in the Southwest, this collaborative approach ensures that the high standards of the AFM are upheld everywhere.

Expanding Our Field Staff

To support this growth, we are investing heavily in our greatest asset: our staff. With the addition of two new SSD negotiators this month, the division now has five full-time negotiators. You can read about our newest negotiators on page 11. We are also planning to add a part-time, French-speaking SSD negotiator later this year to better serve our francophone members.

We also continue to grow our organizing team by adding a total of four regional organizers this year. These organizers will be on the ground, providing the direct mentorship and strategic education our musicians need to win. To better serve our diverse membership, we have also hired a bilingual Spanish and a bilingual French organizer. By building this infrastructure, we aren’t just growing our numbers—we are strengthening the voice of every musician in the Federation. Look for more information and introductions in the May IM.

My late father was born in 1906 into the atmosphere of the central Pennsylvania Mennonites. In his mid-70s, he once remarked to me about the incredible pace of technological change that he had witnessed within his lifetime­—ice blocks to refrigeration; outhouses to indoor plumbing; telegraph to telephone to radio wave broadcast; the horse and buggy to automobiles to air travel to space travel—the list goes on.

I’ve often reflected on his perspective—the fast pace of change within one century compared to all the centuries that preceded­—and lately find myself considering whether my occupancy of the latter part of the previous century and the current one presents any parallels to my father’s experience. It does, although given my many years of involvement with the labor movement, my attention is more drawn toward the societal, political, and economic pace of change rather than the technological.

As a baby boomer, I grew up in the midst of the civil rights movement, environmental activism, the war on poverty, and the emergence of consumer protection laws—all of which was a logical extension of the rewiring of society following the Great Depression of the 1930s. That same era was marked by the Vietnam war protests, the generation gap, the “war on drugs,” and duplicity in political leadership, all of which imbued in some of us of that generation a strong sense of both what is right and wrong for the people. We saw Richard Nixon forced from office for abuse of power and the subsequent election of Jimmy Carter as a harbinger of a better, more just society to come, all held together by a government truly of the people.

That didn’t last. The movement that brought Ronald Reagan into office persuaded society that virtue was embodied by unbridled aggregation of wealth, that government was the problem and big business was our salvation, that rugged individualism and “pulling one’s self up by one’s bootstraps” was the sacred center of Western civilization. (Note to self: I must have been doing it wrong, because when I tried pulling myself up from my bootstraps I didn’t get any taller, but as I leaned down to do so someone did kick me from behind …)

Regulation was the enemy, we were told, and we swallowed it hook, line, and sinker, which ingestion defines the fabric of our society still to this day.

Organized labor took a parallel hit during this era of deregulation persuasion, as did our own industry, as did our union. When I entered this profession, all across the US and Canada our union regulated bandleaders and contractors, booking agents and management companies, clubs and venues, record labels and movie producers, and accordingly stabilized and enhanced what we all got paid. Such was the professional environment that a musician could actually plan the trajectory of their career. In parallel, so, too, could managers, agents, clubs, labels, and producers plan their trajectories.

As the flood of deregulation washed across our land, however, the supports of our industry’s infrastructure got knocked out, one by one. A dependable, internally-regulated system of fair compensation for work fairly performed evaporated, and what remains is a patchwork of union-bargained contracts with individual employers, with the remainder infilled by those of us shoehorned into the gig-worker economy.

Regulation is not a bad word. Regulation once meant that we could enjoy a crystal-clear telephone conversation; that news reportage was balanced; that common carriers (buses and airlines) served all our communities; that we could depend on clean air and water; that we’d know the ingredients of our food; that we’d know the country of manufacture of our consumer goods; that we could fly across the country without our knees jammed into our nostrils and land at an airport without fear of a collision.

Organized labor and unions are all about regulation­—regulation not for the institutions, but for the people who are represented by the unions. Union regulation provides economic stability, economic parity, and fairness in the workplace. Union regulation removes our pay from the equation of competition between producers – if we’re all paid fairly, producers’ success depends on how well they do their business and not who gets away with paying their employees the least.

Government is not the reliable backstop that it once was, however, so we musicians must undertake to redesign what we once had in order for what we do to remain a viable career choice. I look forward to taking the first steps for creating that new blueprint when all our union delegates come together at the AFM’s 103rd international convention in Ottawa next June.

The National Summit on Artificial Intelligence and Culture took place this week in Banff, Alberta, March 15-17. The event was organized by the Government of Canada in collaboration with the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. I joined representatives from Screen Composers Guild of Canada; Canadian Independent Music Association; Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA); and many industry stakeholders from cultural, technological, and academic sectors, alongside government representatives, to advance discussions on the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and culture.

The Honourable Marc Miller, minister of Canadian identity and culture, and the Honourable Evan Solomon, minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation, both presented perspectives. Minister Miller stated that he does not intend to “reopen the Copyright Act” and reaffirmed that creators must be remunerated for the use of their works.

The ministers announced the creation of an advisory committee on culture and AI. While the summit was an important step in bringing the cultural sector together with government and developers, we should remain concerned by the lack of firm commitments to date. I hope the creation of an advisory committee will provide a platform for inclusion of creators. We need consent for the use of copyright-protected works, credit when our works have been used, and compensation for using our work.

As I write this article, we have just wrapped up National Film Board (NFB) negotiations. I want to thank the negotiation committee of Local 149 (Toronto, ON) Executive and AFM International Executive Board Member Dusty Kelly, Local 406 (Montreal, PQ) Executive Director Guy Bernard, and Canadian Office Executive Director Liana White, who joined me at the table. The agreement is being edited and prepared for ratification which will likely happen in May.

There were gains in wages and pension. Real transparency from NFB provided us a platform for positive discussions culminating in updated payments for new use and re-use, as well as a side letter on any use of generative AI (GAI). GAI will be a conversation around negotiating tables for the foreseeable future. We will always work to protect the work done by human creators.

Due to timing, I was unable to share this news last month. I am saddened that Paul Leclair passed away on February 16, following a brief stay in hospital. He was first elected to the AFM Canadian Conference Executive Board in 2001, serving until 2003. His dedication to the AFM spans decades. In 2010, Paul was elected vice president of the AFM Canadian Conference, and in 2011 he became president of the AFM Canadian Conference, a role he served with distinction until his passing. His service to AFM Local 276 (Sault Ste. Marie, ON) began in the mid-1980s, and he remained a dedicated leader throughout the years. He was an active participant on the AFM Small Locals Committee. Paul’s unwavering commitment, steady leadership, and deep passion for musician advocacy will be profoundly missed.

L’IA au cœur des discussions et des négociations avec le gouvernement

par Allistair Elliott, vice-président de l’AFM pour le Canada

Le Sommet national sur l’intelligence artificielle et la culture s’est tenu à Banff, en Alberta, du 15 au 17 mars à l’initiative du gouvernement du Canada en collaboration avec le Centre des arts de Banff. J’y étais, aux côtés de représentants de Screen Composers Guild of Canada, de Éditeurs de musique au Canada, de la Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), de nombreux intervenants des secteurs culturel, technologique et universitaire et de représentants gouvernementaux, pour discuter de la relation entre l’intelligence artificielle (IA) et la culture.

Monsieur Marc Miller, ministre de l’Identité et de la Culture canadiennes, et M. Evan Solomon, ministre de l’Intelligence artificielle et de l’Innovation numérique, ont tous deux exposé leur point de vue sur la question. Monsieur Miller a indiqué qu’il n’avait pas l’intention de « rouvrir la Loi sur le droit d’auteur » et a réitéré la nécessité de rémunérer les créateurs pour l’utilisation de leurs œuvres.

Les ministres ont annoncé la création d’un conseil consultatif sur l’IA et la culture. Bien que le Sommet ait marqué une étape importante en réunissant le milieu culturel, le gouvernement et les développeurs, l’absence d’engagements fermes à ce jour demeure préoccupant. J’espère que la création du conseil consultatif fournira une plateforme qui inclut les créateurs. L’utilisation d’œuvres protégées par le droit d’auteur nécessite un consentement, la mention de la source ainsi qu’une rémunération.

Au moment d’écrire ces lignes, les négociations avec l’Office national du film du Canada (ONF) viennent tout juste de se terminer. Je tiens à remercier le comité de négociation, soit Dusty Kelly, directrice générale de la Toronto Musicians’ Association (section locale 149, Toronto, Ontario) et membre du conseil exécutif international de l’AFM, Guy Bernard, directeur général de la Guilde des musiciens et musiciennes du Québec (section locale 406, Montréal, Québec) et Liana White, directrice générale du Bureau canadien, qui étaient à mes côtés à la table de négociation. La convention est en cours de révision en vue de sa ratification, qui devrait avoir lieu en mai.

Nous avons fait des gains au chapitre des salaires et du régime de retraite. Grâce à la grande transparence dont a fait preuve l’ONF, nous avons pu tenir des discussions constructives qui ont mené à une mise à jour des paiements relatifs aux nouvelles utilisations et aux réutilisations d’œuvres, ainsi qu’à la conclusion d’une lettre d’entente sur l’utilisation de l’IA générative (IAG). L’IAG fera l’objet de nombreuses discussions aux tables de négociation dans les prochaines années, et nous travaillerons sans relâche à protéger les œuvres des créateurs humains.

Le mois dernier, je n’ai pas eu l’occasion de vous faire part d’une triste nouvelle, celle du départ de Paul Leclair le 16 février à la suite d’une brève hospitalisation. Paul a été élu pour la première fois au conseil exécutif de la Conférence canadienne des musiciens de l’AFM en 2001 et y a siégé jusqu’en 2003. Actif au sein de l’AFM pendant des décennies, Paul a été élu vice-président de la Conférence canadienne en 2010 avant d’en devenir président en 2011, poste qu’il a occupé jusqu’à son décès. Il a commencé à s’investir au sein de la section locale 276 (Sault-Sainte-Marie, Ontario) de l’AFM au milieu des années 1980 et s’est démarqué par ses qualités de leader au fil des ans. Membre actif du comité des petites sections locales, Paul était un fervent défenseur des droits des musiciens. Son engagement inébranlable, son leadership rassurant et sa grande passion nous manqueront grandement.