Modernizing Bylaws: At the April 27 General Membership Meeting we are also calling a special meeting of the Musicians Club, the entity that owns our physical property. There will be a bylaw resolution to allow us to vote both online as well as by mail or in person. Currently the bylaws, written in 1924, require the use of postal mail only for a referendum. For voting reasons, this meeting will be in person only. Please make your plans to attend and help us modernize the voting process to save your money and resources on future important votes!
MET Agreement signed: It is a great pleasure to share with you that we have achieved an agreement for the Metropolitan & Community Orchestras contract. Whew! This contract expired back in September 2024, and it is no secret that the bargaining has been lengthy, expensive, and contentious. Working with the elected Committee, we negotiated a new Joint Local 47-Metropolitan & Community Orchestras Cooperative Committee, designed to meet mid-contract to address issues. At the same time, Local 47 has made a commitment to working with musicians well before this contract expires in 2028, to organize to create the conditions to fully achieve their goals for this collective bargaining agreement. Difficult contract goals can’t be gained by even the best and brightest of leadership and committee members alone; only the full participation of all of the affected musicians can turn the tide. We look forward to helping this bargaining unit come together for success.
Informational Panels: Health care is becoming more expensive, more difficult and more complicated for all of us, and that particularly impacts musicians’ freelance lives. On March 16, Local 47 launched the first of what we hope will grow into a monthly open panel presentation. The subject was health care, and we were fortunate to have John Acosta, Local 47 Vice President and lead Local 47 Trustee on the Local 47 Health & Welfare Fund, and Pete Anthony, Trustee and Sean Dugan, Fund Manager from the Entertainment Industry Health Plan. In April we will present an informational panel with the Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund. And watch your email…we will be sending a survey out to all Local 47 members asking for topics for future panels. It’s exciting to have the opportunity to bring good information to you!
Entertainment Union Coalition: The Entertainment Union Coalition (EUC) is the group of unions that lobby in Sacramento on behalf of the workers in the entertainment industry here in California. Currently, the participating unions are the AFM, DGA, WGA, SAG-AFTRA, I.A.T.S.E., LiUNA, Teamsters 399, and the IBEW. I now represent the AFM, along with Kale Cumings, President of the San Francisco Local 6. We have begun meeting with both the full group, and the current President of the EUC, Rebecca Rhine of the Directors Guild. The EUC serves a number of critical roles, and it is fair to say that legislation that affects tax credits in our industry cannot advance with the EUC’s support.
As a result, I reached out to arrange a meeting with the leadership of CAPA, the California Post Alliance, a group proposing a new, separate film & TV post-production tax incentive for California. I met with four of their leadership in order to try to fully understand the proposal. Questions arose pertaining directly to musician scoring jobs, finances and economics, unionizing interests and more, and we had a very helpful discussion. The CAPA leadership promised to get the actual language of the legislative proposal to me, and we look forward to continuing to evaluate and understand it on behalf of the musicians of both Local 47 and the AFM. We will be meeting again in the near future.
Late last month, Local 47 was invited by AFM President Tino Gagliardi and Director of Governmental Affairs Ben Kessler to attend a Spotlight Hearing on the Paramount/Skydance Warner Bros. held by California Senator Adam Schiff, along with Congressional Representatives Laura Friedman and Sidney Kamlager-Dove. Matt Loeb, the International President of I.A.T.S.E. and Noah Wyle, producer, actor and director of The Pitt, were among the featured witnesses. Much of the testimony and questions focused on the urgent need for a Federal film/TV tax incentive. The hearing brought much of the region’s entertainment labor leadership together with elected leadership. Thanks to RMALA President Lara Wickes and RMALA Board members David Horne and Sidney Hopson for helping represent us in this forum. This was an important opportunity for me to speak with our Representatives and synergize with the relationship-building that the AFM is doing in Washington, D.C. on behalf of our community of scoring musicians. It has become clear to the whole entertainment labor community that a federal tax incentive is crucial to our future, and our participation in this hearing was critical to the process.
Covering lots of bases: As you can tell from this column, we are engaged in many different areas on your behalf. From film & TV trends and legislation to live performance contracts of every size and description, from political engagements on the local, state and national level, negotiations with the AFM team with major record labels over AI issues and health care, from organizing new bargaining units of musicians to bringing more work onto existing contracts, Local 47 is representing you. In every one of these areas, your participation is where our real power comes from; even the best leaders and the best committees are only as strong as musicians are willing to stand together. When we let you know about a meeting, your presence is our power. When we share a petition, or an action, your participation is what makes us strong!
In solidarity,
Marc Sazer
President