Late July and August are generally busy times for Local 47 leadership, as well as leaders from around the AFM. Our AFM Player Conferences and other AFM meetings typically occur then, and this year is no exception. I have just returned from a week in Dallas to represent 47 at the annual conferences of both the Theatre Musicians Association (TMA) and the Regional Orchestra Players’ Association (ROPA). In both cases our players were also represented by rank-and-file delegates; Stephen Green for TMA and Lynn Grants for ROPA.
Both of these conferences were immensely valuable. I was able to learn from other officers and players who work in both theater and regional orchestras, as well as a number of speakers and presenters. There were ample opportunities for meetings of the mind with AFM leadership and others. Each summer these conferences create an important space for advancing the interests of Local 47, our musicians and the AFM as a whole.
At the end of August I’ll be attending the annual conference of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM) in Hawaii. Sandwiched in between is a week in New York, participating in the AFM negotiations with the major record labels for our AFM Sound Recording Labor Agreement (SRLA) – stay tuned for a full report on the issues we will be discussing and what progress we will try to achieve.
Key to the health of our film/TV scoring economy are tax incentives. The Federation is a member of the Entertainment Union Coalition (EUC) and I serve as an AFM representative in that group. The first focus of the EUC last year was the doubling of the production tax incentives, and we were successful, but a bill in the California State Senate, SB 122 threatens to unwind the efforts made and destabilize the relationship between the film/TV industry and California. Local 47 signed on to letters sent to key legislators asking for an exemption for our jobs-producing industry, and you will be hearing from us how you can help as well. SB 122 threatens harmful effects on the whole California film/TV economy, including for those of us in music scoring post production.
At the same time, the California Post Alliance (CAPA) is working hard to fund and get final passage of AB 2319, a post production tax incentive. I have met with the legislative proponent, Assemblymember Nick Schultz, in order to resolve key questions holding up Local 47 support, and am waiting to hear back from him. I am hopeful that however this bill proceeds, we can all unite around the goals that we share in common – more employment at standard, more wages both for sessions and for residuals, more health care and pension contributions, and days of work on our scoring stages. The issue of transparency is crucial; knowing what projects have, or will have taken our tax dollars and committed to scoring locally is necessary for ensuring that our tax dollars support at-standard work. And, we can lobby to demand that composers be part of the credits as long as the scoring happens in California. There is much work to be done, and we can do it together!
It has been terrific working with the General Membership Meeting Task Force that I appointed after the April General Membership Meeting. They developed standing rules for the July meeting, and have engaged in discussions about how to improve our meetings by creating a more embracing, interesting and successful environment for members. Our work is not done! I’m looking forward to working further with Alex Iles, Rita Andrade, Allison Allport, and Molly Rogers to make more progress. If you are interested in participating in the process, please contact my office.
I’ve reported in the past about the organizing campaign of the Teaching Artists of the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA). We are bargaining with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, the employer, on behalf of over 100 TA’s. I’m honored to lead a team with Local 47 Counsel Lewis Levy, Director of Organizing Eva Nevarez, and a bargaining committee of teaching artists who are brilliant, committed and courageous in the representation of the bargaining unit. First contracts can sometimes require a very protracted process, but we are hopeful for a contract that the TA’s can vote to ratify in relatively short order.
I hope everybody keeps cool in this hot summer!
In solidarity,
Marc Sazer
President