Data Provides a Blueprint for Labor’s Future and RMA Update

September 1, 2024

Marc Sazer  -  Recording Musicians Association President and Member of Locals 47 and 802

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Labor Studies Center sponsored a research conference over two and a half days, August 2-4. There were over 100 attendees, and another 200 on a waitlist. I felt privileged to have been accepted into the program.

Attendees included professional researchers, organizers, students, union leaders, worker center and other nongovernmental organization leaders, and instructors from organizations far and wide. It was notable that top strategic researchers from AFL-CIO, Teamsters, Writers Guild of America, and other major unions participated.

The conference was structured around six sessions, each with four to six class options, as well as a series of plenary panels comprising top labor leaders and research professionals. The message that strategic research is fundamental for union efforts was brought home and illustrated repeatedly. This includes when launching contract campaigns and organizing campaigns for new coverage or legislative campaigns to achieve political goals. I was struck by the amount of discussion about the value of engaging workers in rank-and-file research.

As an example, a Recording Musicians Association Los Angeles (RMALA) committee is currently taking a deep dive into data being developed to achieve fairness for musicians in film/TV tax credits. Our states and provinces are giving billions of dollars to studios to bring filming to their locations, but much of the music scoring is done overseas, in cheaper venues. It’s about time we had domestic scoring mandates, along with domestic production mandates, for the tax credits that come out of our pockets. Moving legislators and building coalitions with adjacent unions will require real data to guide our pathway forward.

In other RMA news, I’d like to share that RMALA has a new president. Our previous leader, Christopher Anderson-Bazzoli of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA), stepped down last month after leading the chapter through a thrilling AFM campaign to win a streaming residual for film and television. Our new Los Angeles president is oboist Lara Wickes, who previously served as first vice president. A member of Locals 7 (Orange County, CA), 47, and 308 (Santa Barbara, CA), Wickes is a cornerstone of our recording orchestras—not just because she keeps us in tune. She has demonstrated leadership in efforts to improve our community and our workplace. While it’s notable that Wickes will be the first woman to serve as RMALA president, we could not think of a better person to take the reins. We want to thank Wickes for stepping up for us and wish her the best in her new role.

As you read this, our AFM team will be headed into negotiations with the TV networks to negotiate our AFM Live TV/Videotape Agreement. We have been working for months with committees and organizers to bring musicians together, hear their concerns and goals, and build proposals that will move us forward. There are different groups of musicians who comprise this bargaining unit: players on late-night shows; freelancers who work on awards shows, specials, and variety shows; and musicians attached to artists on tour who appear on talk and late-night shows. While most of the musicians involved are in New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville, there are people from all over North America who benefit from this contract, and we want everyone to have a voice.

To return to another key theme of the research conference I attended, we are always thinking about how to build coalitions across union lines. The “hot labor summer” of 2023 that led to major advances for writers, actors, hotel workers, baristas, and musicians in Southern California was fed by coalition building. Likewise, achieving fairness with tax credits will require the coordination and mutual support of those who work in post-production, AFM musicians, Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) session singers, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) technicians, and more. Building union connections gives us all greater power.

Finally, we all live in a world larger than our own workplace. In a few short months, we will be facing public elections that will play a critical role in determining labor rights, the right to organize, the right to antitrust protections from mega entertainment corporations, and more. The AFM player conferences—RMA, Theater Musicians Association (TMA), International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM), and Regional Orchestra Players Association (ROPA) have offered up our united efforts to the AFM for a Get Out the Vote campaign to help our musicians ensure their voices are heard at the ballot box. Please check your voter registration and have a plan to vote, and when we reach out for your participation, please step up!

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