Local 47 meeting 10/26/15
Small crowd for the meeting tonight, but we did have a quorum… 51-53 attending.
Pathetic considering the importance of the subject matter.
Called to order at 7:34.
Pledge – Roll call – 50 year pins – Minutes approved
Special Guest – State Senate Candidate – Anthony Portantino spoke.
Democrat – Seeks local’s endorsement.
OFFICER REPORTS
President – officer’s offices are always open. Use the local, tell them what you think.
NEGOTIATIONS:
Completed negotiations with
1) Symphony in the Glen
2) Center Theater Group – 10% increase over 2 years
3) Magic Mountain contract
4) New Beverly Hilton Hotel CBA for Pianists. (4 rotating players)
5) Redlands Sym – 9% increase;
6) New contract – Experience Carrie LA; (trying to get more money for scoring.)
Have visited with 5 senators for support AB 1199
NLRB Charge against Local has been dismissed. President called them frivolous.
Have been meeting with City of LA reps, counsel members –
discussing sick pay laws; minimum pay laws.
Want nominations for a “Building Committee”. To find out what member want
out of the new building.
Discussing a finance committee if building sale goes through.
HEALTH INSURANCE
H and W front – Getting out of Healthnet going to Blue Shield.
99% of coverage will be identical. Premium should be almost the same.
UCLA – Historical Project – Working with the Local Concerning the
767 (African-American Local) and Local 47 History.
Lots of documents found downstairs.
UCLA wants to digitize and make available the archive
SALE
Referendum: Close of sell vote is Feb 1st, 2016.
timeisnow47.com has info on what’s going on from their perspective.
———————————-
SALE QUESTIONS:
Meeting opened to questions from members about sale.
3 minutes per speaker.
MEMBER:
1) Last meeting had a straw poll on the postponement,
vast majority (about 95%) wanted to delay vote.
Why was it not delayed.
A: Board considered it and dismissed it.
Started talking about it in Feb 2015 in the overture.
(In officer reports)
2) BALLOT: Problem with wording – to sell building for 22 million
or best successful bidder.
A: Counsel wanted wording set that way.
(Important to state the amount)
MEMBER:
Do you intend to sell all the parcels (4) 817, 823, and two
Lillian way plots.
A) Selling it all. Language does not specify that it’s ALL of the site.
Opinion: If it’s just to sell one of the parcels it is not legally bidding.
MEMBER: 1) To tell people not to vote is a problem. If you don’t
have enough information, the answer should be no.
2) What is on the ballot is unclear. It could have been better
addressed if it wasn’t rushed through.
3) How can you set a budget for a build out when you don’t know
what the actual cost will be? Membership should have been
involved (not just notified) far earlier.
Answer: No precedent in Club 47 bylaws on how the sale should go.
Disagree that it’s the wrong time to do this.
MEMBER:
Sale was no surprise, but many members are shocked to hear about the sale,
since it was only mentioned in officer reports and offhand comments in the
minutes of board meetings.
MEMBER:
Comments: When I arrived in Hollywood I saw the Local 47 building and was
thrilled. This is what represents us. It’s a great building. Selling this building
is a mistake. It’s a place we can be proud of. We can have two orchestras
at the same time here.
New Building looks is a strip mall.
DIRECTOR: With the money from the sale we can hire more people to help
get us work. We don’t have the money to hire the folks we need and will be
expensive.
MEMBER: It would not cost a lot if we could get the small segment blocking
process out of the way. RMA drives the bus on contracts.
After much consideration, I cannot support the sale unless the local is
Restructured and the contracts are made competitive again by allowing buyouts
For low budget films, trailers, libraries and samples among others.
If all the dark dates were able to be done on a buyout contracts, there might
Not be a alleged need to sell.
The Local has trimmed around all the edges it can, but won’t head to the
heart of the problem. We’ve lost over 80% of our work because of
Contracts out of date with the world. Some hard core RMA don’t care
What happens to anyone else as long as their July checks are fine and
Are making sure the IEB does nothing to fix the problem.
MEMBER:
Balloting should be done by outside organization.
Q: What comes into the union and what goes out.
Answer: Pull in about 4 million dollars or so in dues every year.
DIRECTOR: Cannot have 2 orchestras at the same time.
Downstairs in no longer available.
Lots of talk of money: Statistic –
in last year we took in $108,000 less in dues.
Spend 408,000’s less. Laid off 3 people.
Froze Officers Salaries.
MEMBER: FMA Member comments:
What is the geographical center of all current local 47 members? Is it Burbank
What is the … of all ACTIVE Local 47 members.
A) 5,495 in ca.
563 outside ca
2,400 members live along the Burbank corridor.
403 life members live in Burbank corridor
742 on the westside: 281 would have a challenge getting to Burbank.
Over 50% of membership lives in the Burbank Corridor.
Giving more consideration to Active members?:
Talked about it. All have equal right to building, active or not.
Q: Given the electronic age, why is local of other trade unions a consideration.
A: It’s not a consideration. Time is now to sell – it’s a seller’s market.
Q: Why are we not looking at existing office building rather than
refurbishing a strip mall.
A. Would be MORE expensive to refit existing office
space than to retool a new (to us) Building.
PARKING
108 parking spots presently, proposed site has 160 parking
spaces. (Currently the Local has rented out our parking lot
for the next three months, so parking for members is a
problem during the day.)
Will be no challenge for parking at the new site. It will be a
spectacular space. Current owner is in his 90’s, on market for
2 years. (But apparently has sat empty for 7 years.)
Is the realtor the seller’s agent, the buyers agent?
A: No, they are different.
MEMBER: I have nothing against moving.
We were very careful to find a NY local for our building.
(mid-Town, not Downtown).
Locale should still be considered.
Q: Has there been talk of building a parking structure.
A: We don’t have the capitol to do it, and there is a height
restriction for building.
MEMBER:
Comment: Income and outflow – Money they have not
spent is in the building. Have you looked at getting a loan
on the building.
A: We’ve not talked about that. Why go into debt when
we can have a surplus.
DIRECTOR: Office buildings? Would cost more than
outfitting a separate building.
We’ve done research on what it needs. The needs cannot
be seen visually. Roof, Handicap accessibility. We don’t
want to lose the legacy of our history.
Have a growing concern is what we will do to protect the
future. Selling the building and having a surplus is
protecting the future. Hollywood no longer the entertainment
center.
TRUSTEE: Someone asked about how we can budget
without all the info. Have had several companies come
through and give us estimates. Union, Non-union,
Architectural company.
Sealed studio $350 dollars per square foot. We have
lots of info.
MEMBER: Do we actually need 30,000 square foot?
Smaller place could be better.
A: Now we have 40,000 square ft.
MEMBER: We had plenty of notice.
Club 47 met three times last year.
MEMBER: Go no direct info about sale.
Anyone who has questions or problems with it could
not ask questions and have those concern answered
MEMBER: We spent 1 million over last 10 years to
upgrade building. Why did we bother?
Building is paid for.
THE FIX IS IN TO DISENFRANCHISE THE MEMBERSHIP
Member makes motion: Postpose vote until the membership
has more information.
PARLIMENTARIAN:
Not appropriate because it’s not a CLUB 47 meeting.
——————
A REAL BOTTOMFEEDER MOVE.
MEMBER: At the October 5th meeting, members were told
they could not make a motion because they were not allowed
at Club 47 Meetings, which are far more restrictive on member
participation.
Last night the member was told they could not make a motion
Because it was a Local 47 meeting, and not a Club 47 meeting.
This incensed a number of members, who knew it was a game
to shut down dissent.
The fix is in: Unless it’s a Club 47 meeting, no motion to delay
can be presented.
They’ve tried to guarantee that no motion can be made until
after the deadline.
MEMBER: In all the years I’ve been a member (32 years) I’ve
NEVER been to or heard of a Club 47 membership meeting
until last October 5th.
CAN A MEMBER CALL FOR A SPECIAL OR REGULAR
CLUB 47 meeting?
PARLIMENTARIAN: Yes, if you get 10 members to sign
the request, And the request makes it clear what is to be
discussed and voted on.
“BINGO!” Exclaimed the member.
That’s exactly what we’ll do.
[EC: Isn’t it pathetic that the membership has to find a
way to do an end run around rules that are designed
to prevent the membership from having a say?]
——————-
Member: Campaign handled terribly. This will come
up at some point. 1996 Ludlow [Owner of Bridgestreet,
INC.] was sentenced to 3 years for defrauding union
of funding. This is the person who owns the company
running the ‘Time is Now’ campaign.
We have a crisis of trust, campaign needs to be crystal
clear, there cannot be a hint of corruption.
PRESIDENT: Ludlow owns Bridgestreet and has
redeemed himself in the Labor community.
We are the elected officers of the Local.
[This trope has come up again and again by directors
and the president, YOU elected us. [Fact is, most were
“elected” unopposed. Only the membership is to blame
for that.]
MEMBER:
Are there any plans to reach out to those who are not on
email for the survey?
A: Not yet.
DIRECTOR: Club 47 special circumstances brought up
by this sale. Some thing that should have been addressed
before, but wasn’t.
If we do concentrate on new building, there’s got to
be something to be proud of.
If we don’t figure out ways to get to new work,
moving is for naught. Trying to represent people
as best we can.
TRUSTEE: About not going straight at the problem.
We don’t have enough money as the local to organize
us as members. If we were to get a CFO for the entire
membership we could maybe get something done.
Need to hire people to represent us.
MEMBER: Trust issues are real.
Club and Local have same board. Did club pay for
$5,000 did mailing cots come out of Local or Club,
was referendum funded by club 47.
A: Funded by Club.
John said they started in Feb 2015, Only discussion
of real estate aspect, not specifics.
Members should vote to have more info.
MEMBER: Agrees with motion stopping the
motion. Any appeal should have been done
right away. Member of the musicians club and
local are the same. As an alternative, chair could
make a motion to suggest that the voting be postponed.
(nothing was done)
MEMBER:
Answer questions. Why didn’t we elect a body
before the process started?
A: The board is that entity.
MEMBER:
What long term plan were they thinking of when
they renovated the building.
A: Was renovated in 2005
DIRECTOR:
John only became president last January.
Will be doing phone banking.
Much better to start with new building to
give us more possibility’s.
MEMBER: Election board: People keep
bringing up that a separate
entity should do the counting. Election
board is trustworthy.
I was on it for 6 year.
MEMBER: What part of the property was
sold without the member’s permission. Part
of it was sold during Fleisher’s time.
A: Were not trying to pull a fast one. We
want what best for the membership.
Not just one section of membership
is responsible for work loss.
Task force decided buyouts were not a good idea,
they spent for 4 months on it.
(Many RMA members were on the Task Force)
MEMBER: Had a task force, got us Butkus.
VP REPORT
Went to SRLA Negotiations – with RMA leadership.
Was an eye opener. Spoke of musicians with total lack
of respect. We kept reminding them of how important
we are. Been working on that contract since 2004.
Was never signed then.
Contract was signed at the end of the week. Took 12 years.
Two more rounds of discussions: In New York and
Los Angeles.
Went to PBS Negotiations – 15 heads of different
PBS areas, contract not changed since 2004. Ask
for 18 % raise to cover12 years, plus additional 3.5
percent over the next 3 years.
Will be another round in December.
Has been involved with 24 different negotiations for
this union. All successfully negotiated.
People across the table just don’t want to admit
they know how important music is.
MEMBER: Recording Nego. 1st National Contract
Ray Hair negotiated.
When negotiations happen in Los Angeles will be
first time its done here.
-Greek theater honored Nederlander for 30 years of shows.
Presented a plaque along with Arthur B. Rubinstein.
Iatsi presented plaque as well. It was a family feel.
Everybody cared.
SMG is taking over Greek Theater
Other board members helped with presentation.
Member requested to speak, was told they couldn’t
during officer reports.
SECRETARY REPORT
All sales letters received will be published.
Financials:
TAKEN IN: Approx. $2,700,000 dollars
Paid out: Approx. $2,132,000
Approx. $474,000 surplus
Are in the black for the 3rd quarter.
As Treasurer, as to building sale, financial life
goes up and down. It’ll be win/win, to have brand
new building with state of the art facilities.
With 10 millions to invest, can have a reliable
source of income for decades to come.
Once again we received some labor media awards:
For Linda Rapka –
for Local 47 Beat – 1st place for electronic newsletter,
2nd place in writing award for Linda Rapka.
3rd place in internet design for new website.
Gig Junction is hosting a meet and greet,
November 4th in auditorium at 7pm
PROMUSICDB.org
Cristy Crowl presentation on ProMusicDB.org –
to preserve everyone’s legacy and what we do.
Record info, players lists and suc
Can include all your pictures as well and populate
your page with them. Will be safe in perpetuity.
Can track calendar and events.
Easy interface to use must be associated with a
union or a PRO.
Been working on it for 3 years, will be released in
March at
NXNW 2016.
Creation was supported by Engineer Damon
Tedesco (Wrecking Crew) and AFM, LOCAL 47
among others.
Questions for PROMUSIC DB
Member: Live folks do a lot of this kind of thing.
1) When does it start? A: March 2016
2) IMDB is $150 a year. What’s the process to do
it on ProMusicDB?
Far easier than with IMDB
3) All music.com is the only place to go and they’re
slow and can take 3 years.
We need to be part of Data test
OLD (UNFINISHED) BUSINESS:
MEMBER: Would be investing 10 Millions, last time it was
11 millions. Why the Change,
A: We’re talking generalities. Don’t have exact numbers yet.
MEMBER: No one’s blaming this RMA but LOS ANGELES
has major influence on the contracts. Not a question of them
respecting us, it’s capitol and supply and demand, we need
to look at improving the contracts to get work back.
This union building CAN hold 2 full orchestras.
NEW BUSINESS:
Nominations for Building Committee: Board will confirm
tomorrow.
1) Lisa Haley
2) Mike Barron
3) John papenbrook
4) Randy Alcroft
5) Michael Davis
6) Paul Sternhagen
7) Alan Fogel
8) Charles Fernandez
Leanne Powers – Musician and New Marketing
Director for the Credit Union.
Some things to point out.
1) Credit Union and the Local are separate.
2) Paid by credit union not Local 47.
3) Worked in marketing for more than 20 years.
4) This position gives me the opportunity to help
musicians in the financial arena.
5) Loans for instruments
6) Establishing a credit history
7) Is a member owned co-opt
8) Mobile/Online banking – 12 employees.
9) We know our members.
MEMBER:
Comment on the overture – used to read it.
Then started going on line – tried to download it
on the phone. Now that’s it’s online, I don’t have
the time to read a whole overture
How much money is saved by not having the
monthly print edition.
A: Saving approx.. $40,000 a year. One of the only
locals that is still published monthly, along with New
York. Online is the new direction the world is going.
We’re striving to get everyone’s email address.
Still have a long way to go.
It’s a transition period but it does save us some money.
Meeting Adjourned at 10:15 PM.