Tag Archives: officer column

Officer Columns, Vice President

Disruptive Technologies — Our Time of Transformation

Bruce Fife headshotby Bruce Fife, AFM International Vice President and President of Local 99 (Portland, OR)

The old phrase, “may you live in interesting times” is often purported to be a blessing, when in fact, it is a curse, mistakenly attributed to be of ancient Chinese origins, though its origins are Western, 20th century. Whether it’s a blessing or a curse is of little consequence.

What is of consequence is the “times” we live in are moving forward at breakneck speed, with little consideration to the effect of disruptive technologies. I don’t know whether it’s possible to slow things down enough to consider the impact of implementation, but I believe it’s important to try.

The music biz was the canary in the coal mine. We were the first to really be impacted by the disruption caused by the technological revolution. Starting with Napster, it’s pretty much been one disruption after another. As you look at other industries, journalism was right on our tails, then retail, film, and TV, etc. All impacted to varying degrees by new technology.

Now the newest twist is the “sharing economy” of Uber, Airbnb, and Lyft. This is disruptive, because once again, the technology allows companies to play by a different set of rules.  Everyone is placed at the intersection of worker rights, consumer rights, consumer preferences, and big business. On one hand, for example, there is no obligation to have liability insurance nor to pay license fees or other types of taxes that cab companies and/or hotels are historically required to pay. In other words, they’re profiting by not playing the “game” the way years of experience have brought it together through knowledge that protects consumers and workers and with infrastructure that allows businesses to flourish.

I do get it—the convenience of tapping your phone and having a car show up quickly, or the adventure of staying in someone’s home with a view. But, if you were the cab driver who has had to follow a strict set of rules (laws or mandated regulations), which can now be ignored by Uber, or you live on a street where your neighbor rents out his home and now there are late night parties and strangers “moving in” who have little or no respect for your neighborhood, you might not think it’s such a good idea.

There is one other key consequence. The revenue generated is not going to the worker on the ground, but once again, appears to be flowing to the top. Uber has reportedly become a $50 billion company in just six years and the drivers are not getting an equitable share of that revenue. In fact, depending on which report you read, after adjusting for the overhead of their vehicles, they are making no more than current cabbies. That could change. Uber drivers have now won their first round in Federal Court in San Francisco relating to their misclassification as independent contractors. They are fighting to be classified as employees so that they are be able to receive gratuities (Uber informs customers that gratuities are included in the price) and recover maintenance costs. They are taking a stand.

The thing that bothers me most about all of this is that no one seems to be looking at the long-term consequences. Are we again, by not considering the long term, going to destroy more industries, at the cost of many more jobs for hard-working people? Are we going to destroy, as well, the infrastructure that has made this short-term growth possible, but that may not survive the disruption? I’m not against progress, but I believe we’re better served if we don’t blow up an industry, but rather, keep the best of it, while shedding the anachronistic parts of it.

The place I’m headed with this is wages. All of this disruption hits wages of workers harder than any other part of the industry. The response to these challenges seems to always be to lower our wages. That is certainly the easiest answer, but once you go down that road, it’s difficult to come back from it. Yes, it’s hard to see, and to stand up for the long game, but if we don’t, we just hand everything over to whomever is the current “man.” (Remember that little company, Google, and its slogan, “do no evil”? Now, it’s clearly “the man.”)

How did we get to the place where club owners are doing musicians a favor by letting them play in their clubs? How is it ok to give US tax credits to companies that then take the work overseas? How does it make sense that one musician is supposed to cover the clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, oboe, and English horn parts in the pit, just so they don’t have to hire more musicians? How bad does it have to be before people decide, okay, that’s enough, now it’s time to stand up and fight for what’s right.

Yes, I’m ranting, but I get tired of watching the “power” of the employer not challenged by the power of our numbers. It can’t be just your local or national officers who are ready to stand up for what’s right. You have to be part of that team. We do live in interesting times and I’d like to see us come through them better than we came into them. So far, it’s not looking so good.

We must focus our creative attention and power on those external forces around us that take advantage of our lack of engagement. We need to have the common sense to value our skills and talent, our work, and the music we create and offer. Yes, it’s scary, it’s challenging, but when we don’t stand up to power, they can take it all away from us. It’s human nature to do what they’re doing, but it should also be our nature to fight this “curse” of interesting times, and make sure we own and benefit from what we create.

Officer Columns

OCSM/CFM Unity Conference to Be Held in August

by Robert Fraser, OCSM President and Member of AFM Local 247 (Victoria, BC)

In my March 2014 article in the International Musician I pointed out that 2014 marked the 40th anniversary of the meetings that led to the formation of the Organization of Canadian Symphony Musicians (OCSM). OCSM’s first stand-alone meeting was held in Edmonton a year later, in 1975, and OCSM’s inaugural conference was held in Toronto the year after that. So this summer will be our 40th Conference. We are pleased to announce that it will be held alongside the AFM Canadian Conference in Windsor, Ontario, from August 7-11. August 8 will be a shared day between the two conferences. Details will be provided in a future issue of the IM.

In Between Conferences

Like the other symphonic player conferences, OCSM is a network of orchestral musicians that works within the AFM, and with other interested industry partners, to advocate for its members and to share valuable information. Readers of the IM are well aware of the work we do with the AFM Symphonic Services Division (SSD) to prepare the wage charts.

From time to time we deal with other specific issues. For example, a task force consisting of OCSM delegates, local officers, and representatives of Orchestras Canada recently prepared a submission to the Government of Canada about problems musicians and staff have encountered in our orchestras due to changes in the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP). Occasionally, OCSM orchestras hire non-Canadian musicians, and the new TFWP rules have made it difficult for these musicians to qualify for provincial medical coverage, or to have work permits renewed while they are still under probation. We hope these submissions will produce some results.

Although we are all busy orchestral musicians (the executive included), OCSM delegates maintain open communication throughout the season. This is invaluable when orchestras are negotiating, and when issues arise where we need to seek the advice of colleagues. Each delegate reports mid-season to the executive, and topics are collected for open discussion and action at the conference. Such topics include: health and safety issues, new forms of media promotion of orchestras (especially social media), musician involvement in conductor and executive director searches, and musician involvement in education and outreach programs.

Orchestra London Canada Shutdown

Orchestra London Canada ceased operations December 2014. Their board has not officially declared bankruptcy, but staff have been laid off and all concert dates for the remainder of 2014-2015 were cancelled. The musicians of Orchestra London have rallied to keep music alive in their community, and have continued to perform on their own. You can find out more about their efforts at: https://musiciansorchestralondon.wordpress.com/. A call to action has seen donations from AFM members across North America, with musicians from close to 30 orchestras assisting their colleagues in London. This showing of solidarity makes me personally proud to be a member of this union.

Good Newslets

  • On March 19, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra) announced a five-year record deal with Decca. That same week saw similar announcements from other orchestras: it would seem that major labels are reviving their interest in orchestral music. Fans of the OSM will know that their international reputation is due in part to the catalogue of more than 80 recordings made on the Decca label with former Music Director Charles Dutoit.
  • The Canadian Opera Company just finished its third production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with Handel’s “Semele” in March (previous visits were in 1993 and 2011).
  • Symphony Nova Scotia ratified a five-year agreement that sees its season expand from 33 to 35 weeks with the addition of their first-ever summer season.
  • The Edmonton Symphony recently recorded the score for the CBC TV series The Great Human Odyssey with composer Darren Fung.
Executive Board Members, Officer Columns

Are You Leaving Money On the Table?

There are many challenges to maintaining your career as a professional musician. We live in a technology-driven world that has dramatically changed the way music is distributed, marketed, and sold. The drop in CD sales precipitated by illegal downloading has leveled off somewhat, but digital download sales have not compensated for the loss of income to musicians, record labels, and music publishers.

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Officer Columns, Secretary-Treasurer

Could the Working America Concept Work for Musicians?

One of the fastest growing organizations in the country is Working America (www.workingamerica.org). It mobilizes working people 365 days a year, contacting them at home to talk about jobs, health care, politics, and items that working families confront daily. The AFL-CIO initiated Working America to target nonunion working people. These are people who do not have the benefit of collective agreements.

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Executive Board Members, Officer Columns

LAANE: New US Film Scoring Policies and Incentive Rules Are Key to More Work

marcby Marc Sazer, RMA President and Member of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA)

As AFM President Ray Hair has reported, the American Federation of Musicians recently concluded negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for our collective bargaining agreements covering theatrical motion pictures and television film. We are relieved to have gotten past the negotiating process, and can now set our sights on a top priority for affected musicians: employment. As we have reported previously, the AFM has relatively far fewer signatory producers than any other union in the film and TV industry, and the number of signatories has not grown for decades. This affects our whole union—our pension funds, our relationship with corporate media, and our position with sister media unions.

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Executive Board Members, Music Performance Trust Fund

The Music Performance Trust Fund — Get the Picture!

MPTFby Dan Beck, Trustee, Music Performance Trust Fund

If you have ever heard me speak about the mission of the Music Performance Trust Fund (MPTF), you might remember that I invariably request photos, whenever possible, from the events that we co-sponsor. I am sure that, on the surface, it sounds quaint and nice that the MPTF wants to have a collection of memories or that we are looking for some added proof that the event actually happened.

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Officer Columns

Organizing Means Raising the Profile of the People Making the Music

You can be a musician, and have power in numbers, too. As a union, it is our job to ensure that musicians get fair treatment and are recognized by their employers as the valuable employees that they are. But to do so, we must continue to engage our members and make sure that the general public knows that, if they care about music, they must care about musicians. In any campaign, we must ensure that musicians are both the faces and the motor that keeps it going.

This was very much the case during negotiations with the Metropolitan Opera this year. The MET Orchestra Musicians brought the energy and the exacting nature that they bring to their work every day to the negotiating table. They approached the talks with rigorous, data-driven analysis and found areas where management could achieve real cost savings, while performing grand opera.

It was grueling work for all of us, but it was great to see the level of collaboration amongst the musicians and their solidarity with their coworkers at the MET. It was also clear to anyone who was following the process that opera is still very much alive and well, and that the MET Orchestra Musicians had the support of elected officials, friends, and fans from around the world, all of whom chimed in to express their solidarity.

The musicians were able to raise their profile, via their own website and through social media, and are continuing to engage their fans and build their audiences this way. I am proud of the family they are, of the hard work that they put into their craft every day, and of their incredible and continued teamwork during negotiations. While the agreement calls for sacrifices on both sides, it is unprecedented among arts organizations in that it calls for a new level of financial oversight and includes a mechanism for artists to collaborate in finding meaningful efficiencies.

When Local 802 (New York City) member Jimmy Owens testified at a City Council hearing about the plight of older musicians in jazz clubs, he did something no one but a musician could do: he reached for his flugelhorn, and played “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” to a rapt audience. It was a moment that reminded everyone present about the power of live music. The attention he and other musicians garnered helped the Justice for Jazz Artists campaign achieve a new goal this year. In October, the New York City Council passed a resolution supporting Justice for Jazz Artists, which seeks, through collective bargaining, to improve the lives of musicians working in New York City’s jazz clubs by addressing workplace issues, including providing retirement security.

Once again, the musicians were front and center. Local 802 members testified at a City Council hearing about the hardships of older jazz musicians who have not received pensions, performed at the resolution’s passage, and later, gathered with council members on the steps of City Hall. The musicians’ commitment and passion garnered much attention, and now more people than ever are supporting this campaign. This kind of support will help push New York’s major jazz clubs to do the right thing, and will hopefully lead to similar campaigns in other cities.

In the coming year, it is important for us to bring the same energy to other campaigns. We must ensure that working musicians are treated fairly in venues such as casinos, which have a growing presence in New York and in areas throughout the country. We must also ensure that, in areas where there are generous state and federal government tax incentives for film companies, there are also strong campaigns. We must educate the public about the problem of companies who receive such benefits outsourcing musicians’ jobs to London and Bratislava. Once again, it will be important to ensure that our musicians are front and center in these efforts, and to build strong coalitions with other stakeholders who care about these issues. Musicians have power, and our members were reminded of that fact this year. It is our job to make sure they don’t forget about the power they have and what they can accomplish when they work together.

President's Message

Game Noise, Game Over; Update on Relocation; and IMA Negotiations

Last month, I promised to report on discussions I had in London with representatives of the British Musicians’ Union (BMU), prior to heading to Budapest for the first International Conference on Music Streaming. The purpose of my London visit was to verify the BMU’s promulgated terms, conditions, and practices covering the services of contractors, musicians, arrangers, and copyists engaged in the UK for the recording of videogame scores.

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