AFM President Ray Hair speaks out against film-music offshoring at the Listen Up! campaign launch in Los Angeles.
WESTWOOD (April 11, 2014) — Yesterday Los Angeles-area musicians held a press conference and rally across from the Regency Theatre in Westwood as part of a nationwide kickoff for Listen Up! – a campaign for fairness for musicians working in the motion picture and TV film industry.
The campaign calls out the motion picture-TV film industry for treating U.S. musicians unfairly by offshoring movie soundtrack recordings. Many offshored soundtrack recordings are made for films funded in part by U.S. taxpayers. At the Listen Up! kickoff event, musicians who are members of the American Federation of Musicians and its affiliated Los Angeles Local 47 were joined by representatives from the AFL-CIO, and other labor, faith, and community leaders to call on the film industry to stop offshoring film scoring work.
“I am proud to say that music is my work,” said Rafael Rishik, a violinist and member of AFM Local 47. “But when companies undermine our working conditions by sending our jobs overseas, it jeopardizes the future for all working musicians, it hurts our families, and it hurts our communities. That’s why I’m standing with other musicians to tell the film industry, ‘Listen up and do the right thing.’”
AFM International President Ray Hair attended the rally and opened the nationwide campaign. “People who love the movies know that music is the heart and soul of a film. They also know that musicians are vital to the motion picture and TV film industry,” Hair said. “Our work must be afforded the same dignity and respect that other cast and crew members enjoy. We will engage industry leaders on these issues until there is positive change for musicians.”
The Listen Up! campaign also challenges film and TV production companies that receive millions in taxpayer financing incentives, credits and rebates, and then run away to overseas locations to record their movie soundtracks, robbing musicians and their communities of good paying jobs.
Prominent local civic and political leaders, including L.A. City Councilmember Paul Koretz, LAANE Executive Director Roxana Tynan, Rabbi Jonathan Klein of CLUE-LA and many others joined AFM musicians at the rally in support of the campaign.
The Listen Up! Campaign is an initiative of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, the AFL-CIO, and community members who support dignity and justice for professional musicians. For more information, visit www.listenupnow.org.
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