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Recent News

Philly Ends Transit Strike in Time for Election

Early November 7, Philadelphia’s transit system resolved a labor dispute with its union ending a major strike that threatened to carry into Election Day. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and the Transport Workers Union agreed on a new contract after a week-long shutdown. The looming election brought pressure to bear on both parties to hash out their differences.

Transport Workers Union 234 announced they had reached a tentative five-year deal with SEPTA that would still need to be ratified by employees. Pension plan, health care costs, and scheduling were the crux of the disagreement.

The workers’ contract expired at the end of October. Union members voted against extending any deadlines in order to force SEPTA to agree to a contract before people needed to get to the polls. When the strike began, SEPTA sought a court injunction to force workers back onto the job ahead of the election. That injunction was not granted. The agency would have made its argument again in court had it not reached a deal.

Recent News

Move to Dismiss Copyright Suit over Famous Beatles’ Concert Footage

The Beatles and their codefendants are slapping back at a lawsuit claiming that Ron Howard’s new film Eight Days a Week—The Touring Years uses copyrighted footage of the group’s 1965 Shea Stadium concert without permission.

The Beatles’ Apple Corps Limited and Subafilms Limited have filed a motion to dismiss the suit. Heirs of concert promoter Sid Bernstein, who died in 2013, claim the Shea Stadium show was Bernstein’s idea and that he “planned, managed, and paid for virtually every aspect of the production.” The defendants contend Nems Enterprises, controlled at the time by The Beatles manager Brian Epstein, contracted for the “sole and exclusive right” and that Bernstein “never asserted any claim of authorship or copyright ownership in the film of the concert.” Bernstein merely “observed the filming and recording.” In this new claim, Bernstein’s heirs say he “made independent copyrightable contributions to the work embodied in the master tapes” and that “Bernstein was the employer for hire of The Beatles and the opening acts performed at his instance and expense.”

The US Copyright Office previously rejected an application by Sid Bernstein Presents last year to claim copyright over the master tapes.

Recent News

Harvard Union Organizing Hotspot

The United Auto Workers Harvard Graduate Student Union came to an agreement with Harvard University officials last week that a election to vote on union representation will be held November 16 and 17.

Meanwhile, 750 Harvard Dining Hall workers reached a tentative agreement through mediation after an almost three-week strike. The strikers are asking for $35,000 per year, an end to health care costs being pushed onto them, and no concessions on retiree health care. About 95% of the workers had participated in the strike, joined by a coalition of students, faculty, and alumni.

On October 14, 11 striking workers, including UNITE HERE Local 26 President Brian Lang and lead negotiator Michael Kramer were arrested after they blocked traffic in Harvard Square in a civil disobedience protest supporting the dining services workers.

“This started out as a group of the lowest-paid workers on the richest university deciding to take a stand for themselves and their families,” says Brian Lang, the president of Unite Here Local 26, which represented the workers.

Recent News

Montreal Symphony Shows Off Octobass

Montreal Symphony Orchestra (MSO) recently became the only orchestra in the world to posses a rare octobass. Measuring almost 12 feet tall and weighing in at more than 288 pounds, the instrument can go as low as the lowest note of the piano, almost to the lowest limits of human hearing. Because it is so large, it would be impossible for a bassist to press the strings to the neck, so the three-stringed is played with levers and pedals. Invented in 1849 by luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume in France, only three were ever built. The MSO’s instrument is a modern reproduction built in 2010. For more details about this remarkable instrument visit: http://www.osm.ca/en/octobass/.

Recent News

Pennsylvania Professors’ Strike Ends

A strike that threatened to stall the education of students at 14 Pennsylvania campuses has been settled. The union representing more than 5,000 professors and Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties (APSCUF) came to an agreement with the State System of Higher Education three days after the strike began. While the faculty did have to accept some concessions to salary and benefits, including an increase in what they pay for health care, the state negotiators dropped most of the 200 concessions originally proposed.

“Our primary goals were to preserve quality education for our students, protect our adjuncts from exploitation, and make sure the varieties of faculty work are respected,” says APSCUF President Kenneth M. Mash. “We achieved every single one of those goals, and the faculty were willing to take less than every other bargaining unit in order to preserve those goals.”

Recent News

Jim Beam Strike Ends

On October 24, Jim Beam workers, members of United Food and Commercial Workers International Local 111D, ended a nearly weeklong strike at two bourbon distilleries in Kentucky. According to Local 111D President Janelle Mudd the main objections from workers did not center on money. “The final proposal includes many of the key elements that we felt so strongly about, such as equal pay for equal work, a cap on temporary employees, and the hiring of more full-time workers,” she says.

Recent News

NYC Freelancers Set to Get New Protections

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is set to sign into law a new bill to protect the city’s freelance workers. The first of its kind in the country, The Freelance Isn’t Free Act creates harsh penalties for employers who delay or deny payment to freelancers and sets a strict window within which they must be paid. Employers will now have a 30-day window after services are rendered (or another greed upon date) to make payment in full. Employers must provide a written contact for projects involving $800 or more. Employers found in breach of the law will be required to double damages, plus are responsible for attorney fees. They are prohibited from retaliating against the freelancers who enforce their labor rights.

A 2015 report from the Freelancers Union found that more than 70% of freelancers in New York have had problems receiving payment.

Recent News

NAMM Tec Awards Honor Joe Perry

The 2017 NAMM Technical Excellence & Creativity Awards will honor Local 9-535 member and Aerosmith co-founder Joe Perry and his producer Jack Douglas. The NAMM Foundation announced October 27 that Perry will receive the Prestigious Les Paul Award given on behalf of the Les Paul Foundation to honor individuals who have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of recoding technology in the spirit of audio pioneer and musician Les Paul.

As principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and producer of multiple tracks, Perry’s talents have contributed to Aerosmith’s four Grammy Awards, six Billboard Music Awards, 12 MTV Video Awards, two People’s Choice Awards, and more than 150 million albums sold. At the event, Perry will perform live before an audience of pro audio and sound production inventors, musicians, and industry friends.

Perry, who was a friend of Les Paul, states, “Anytime my name is mentioned in the same sentence as Les Paul, it’s a huge honor. Getting an award bearing his name is icing on the cake.”

Along with Perry, producer Jack Perry will be inducted into the NAMM Tec Hall of Fame, created to honor pioneers of audio technology, as well as the music industry’s most accomplished producers.

Recent News

Montreal Symphony Shows Off Octobass

Montreal Symphony Orchestra (MSO) recently became the only orchestra in the world to posses a rare octobass. Measuring almost 12 feet tall and weighing in at more than 288 pounds, the instrument can go as low as the lowest note of the piano, almost to the lowest limits of human hearing. Because it is so large, it would be impossible for a bassist to press the strings to the neck, so the three-stringed is played with levers and pedals. Invented in 1849 by luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume in France, only three were ever built. The MSO’s instrument is a modern reproduction built in 2010. For more details about this remarkable instrument visit: http://www.osm.ca/en/octobass/.

Recent News

Hamburg Aims to Become Musical Center

On November 5, the Elbphilharmonie, a glass-paneled building mounted atop a former warehouse and rising 360 feet above Hamburg, Germany, will open to the public. The hall, six years behind schedule and costing more than $860 million, 10 times more than originally projected, is part of HafenCity, a development project to increase the city center by 40%. Home to Hamburg’s recently renamed NDR Elbphilharmie Orchestra, officials hope the building containing two concert halls, a four-star hotel, restaurant, and residential apartments, will help to transform Hamburg into a musical center.