Attending the executive committee meetings of the International Federation of Musicians (FIM) in Helsinki brought home the importance of having ongoing relations with the other musicians’ unions in the world. Too often we focus on problems that impact us directly and personally, which leads to isolated thinking, oblivious that others have or have had similar issues elsewhere.
Tag Archives: alan willaert
Statistics Canada’s Report on the Economics of Canadian Culture
Statistics Canada just released a paper that outlines the Provincial and Territorial Canadian Culture Satellite Account (PTCSA). The PTCSA provides measures of the economic importance of culture (inclusive of the arts and heritage) across Canada in terms of output, gross domestic product, and employment, for reference year 2010.
Copyright Extended and Anti-Union Bill C-377 Moves Forward
Prior to May of this year, the copyright on sound recordings in Canada extended 50 years after release. In a surprise move, the Harper government, without any public consultation or discussion, moved to extend protection to 70 years as part of the budget. Sadly, the change did not include authors and publishers, where copyright protects the song for the life of the author plus 50 years.
Canadian Boycott of Crown Cans
Members of United Steel Workers Local 9176 have been forced on strike for close to 18 months at Crown Holdings in Toronto, Ontario. Crown is one of the largest beverage and food can manufacturers in the world. Originally known as Crown, Cork & Seal, the company is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and operates approximately 149 factories in 41 countries. It is profitable (it doubled its profits in 2012) and boasted net sales of $8.7 billion in 2013.
Standards Committee Finds Solutions for Locals
The Canadian Conference has always been an active, engaging and results-oriented event. The last two remained true to that legacy, as they spawned a special Standards Committee, comprised of Local 279 (London, ON) Secretary-Treasurer Ted Peacock; Local 384 (Brockville, ON) Vice President Pat Johnson; Local 591 (Thunder Bay, ON) Secretary-Treasurer Norm Slongo; Local 293 (Hamilton, ON) President Larry Feudo; and Local 547 (Calgary, AB) Secretary-Treasurer Chair Doug Kuss, who is committee chair.
CFM, a Year-in-Review
The year 2014 has been a turbulent one for the Canadian Federation of Musicians (CFM).
However, to start on a positive, February saw the removal of rules about unionization votes from proposed Bill C-525. The deleted rules were completely biased against unions.
At a December 2013 general meeting of Local 406 (Montreal, PQ), a motion was passed to conduct a referendum to determine if the local should disaffiliate from the AFM. The local and the AFM struggled to find a solution for a shortfall in the local’s ability to pay its per capita dues. Balloting took place in June. The July IM announced that barely a simple majority of 46.6% of members surveyed voted against disaffiliation from the AFM. Now the local’s leadership has placed a motion before the courts to obtain a declaration that the 53% majority obtained in the consultation survey is sufficient to disaffiliate, in spite of the local bylaw requirements.