Ray Hair

AFM International President

The Budapest Conference: A Campaign for Fairness in Music Streaming?

December 1, 2014

I am writing this month’s column while flying back to AFM headquarters after a week of informative meetings November 17 through 21 in London with our counterparts from the British Musicians Union on electronic media issues, and in Budapest, Hungary, where the Hungarian Musicians Union and the International Federation of Musicians (FIM) convened the first […]

Relocation, Part Two: Temporarily Postponed, but Very Much Alive

November 1, 2014

As previously reported in this column in July, Secretary-Treasurer Sam Folio and I, as fully authorized by your International Executive Board (IEB), opted to negotiate an agreement to purchase an office condo located in the financial district of lower Manhattan to serve as the AFM’s new home. In my June column, I also provided a […]

Carry-on Talks with DOT: We Have Liftoff

October 1, 2014

By the time this column is published, the AFM and the US Department of Transportation (DOT) will have convened a second historic meeting at DOT headquarters in Washington, DC, to address the difficulties professional musicians face when traveling by air with musical instruments. Our initial meeting was convened in July by DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx […]

Games the Employers (and Agents) Play

September 1, 2014

Even before it received rank-and-file approval late last month, the AFM’s new Video Game Agreement was already in use in Los Angeles, despite a crusade against it by an assortment of Hollywood employers and composers who were offended two years ago when the International Executive Board jettisoned a 2006 agreement because it contained inferior wages […]

AFM Testimony on African Ivory Ban

August 1, 2014

As you may know, the actions of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in implementing a ban on the commercial trade in African elephant ivory have imposed severe restrictions on our members who regularly perform internationally with instruments that lawfully contain small amounts of elephant ivory. A USFWS order originally issued February 25, […]

Relocation: A Decades-Old Work in Progress, Part 1

June 3, 2014

As you know, the 99th Convention adopted a financial package that will raise $1.2 million in additional revenue annually for the Federation, from 2014 onward. The delegates debated and eventually affirmed the financial measures through a simple voice vote—bypassing the time-consuming roll-call vote process that has historically accompanied convention financial resolutions. This was seen as […]

FIM: Action Speaks Louder than Words

April 2, 2014

Following is the text of the keynote speech I delivered February 25, 2014 in Oslo, Norway on the occasion of the 3rd International Orchestra Conference hosted by the International Federation of Musicians (FIM). On behalf of the entire membership of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, the largest labor union […]

Bargaining Hard in the Jingle and Orchestral Media Industries

March 4, 2014

As previously reported in this column, the Federation recently opened two sets of industry-wide media negotiations for the purpose of concluding successor agreements for musicians working in two distinctly different sectors. On December 16, 2013, we exchanged proposals with an association of symphonic, opera, and ballet employers toward the goal of updating and improving our […]

Dick Gabriel Retires as Head of EMSD, Bill Thomas Succeeds Him

February 1, 2014

Dick Gabriel, who served Local 47 and the Federation in various capacities for more than 35 years, most recently as director of our Electronic Media Services Division, retired on January 16, closing a career that has benefitted thousands of professional musicians.

Negotiations in Progress:Film, Jingles, and Symphonic Media

January 1, 2014

As we close a dynamic and energetic 2013 and look ahead toward a productive new year, negotiations for constructive, successor media agreements with the film, jingle, and symphonic employment sectors will dominate my work schedule early on. That said, despite the contentious nature of labor negotiations, the bargaining table is a place I relish because […]