7/31/16
I. MEETING RECAP – 7/25/16
II. COMMENTS ON “POLLINATION”
III. COMMENTS
IV. EVENTS
…Absolutely guaranteed anonymity – Former Musician’s Union officer
…The one voice of reason in a sea of insanity – Nashville ‘first call’
scoring musician
…Allows us to speak our minds without fear of reprisal – L.A. Symphonic musician
…Reporting issues the Musicians Union doesn’t dare to mention – National touring musician
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I. MEETING RECAP – 7/25/16
Quorum was not achieved for the meeting on Monday so
there was no official meeting.
Board will decide on the new trial board member themselves
at their meeting on Tuesday.
Moment of silence for all those killed by attacks over the
last few weeks.
Bonnie Janofsky takes minutes since Gary Lasley is on his
way to ROPA. Substitute Parliamentarian standing in.
50 Year Pins: Jay Rosen presented.
OFFICER REPORTS:
President
Negotiations with 21 employers
GRIEVANCES
2016 10 grievances – 6 withdrawn, 2 settled and one is
in arbitration.
EMPLOYMENT
Processed over 5253 Contracts totaling over 38 million
NEGOTIATIONS
Pasadena Master CHorale
Pasadena Symphony
MET
Desert Symphony
Greek
Amoe Symphony and others
Other various events attended:
Screenings
Jacaranda is finally a signatory
Magic Castle charged
John Williams LIFETIME achievement award
Labor Unity – health achievement
State Federation of Labor convention.
Working toward union solidarity
Workshops have been taking place.
Big Sir Jingle Mixer
ORGANIZING
Eric Cruz from the Realtor’s Office who took care of the
sale of the building now is working for us.
New Organizer speaks. Wants to get members more
involved, and figure out how to do that….
BUILDING
Are in escrow on our building. 2 previous escrows fell through.
Alameda building is gone. The place used to sell everyone
on the sale of our building.
We walked away when the seller and the deal got weird.
New Option
Winona Near the Airport – 2 story with elevator – Lot with
150 spots.
Potential problems being investigated
Vapor encroachment – not unusual, but concerning and
must be investigated for effect on the membership. Will
cost thousands to mitigate the problem.
Question: Noise issue? Don’t think so. No commercial
airlines flying over that site.
General sale price is $25,250,000.00
LEGISLATURE
Withdrawn support for the bill AB1199
May re-introduce new bill in 2017
HEALTH CREW
Mergible Plans being discussed
AFM Updates – Best ever according to Acosta – elected to IEB.
Now says he has a real voice.
ELECTRONIC VERIFICATION –
used to do surveys with membership to vote on their contracts
securely. passed.
Parity resolution passed
Still in negotiations with Sound Recording Companies.
OTHER ISSUES
Ca Phil having problems – Canceled all but Disney Hall.
Riverside Philharmonic – They’re having challenges as well.
Could not guarantee wages. Cut performances and made payroll
Star Trek Settlement – Touring group – was at Pantages, didn’t co-operate. Have now settled.
EXHIBIT
Honor Local 767 – the Black Musicians Union. Raising funds.
Find it on the Local website.
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VP REPORT
Glad Acosta is on the IEB starting August 1st.
June 1st – 4th – live TV negotiation in New York – 1st round.
New Media and Music Prep, Clip use. Will meet again end
of September.
Sept 19th – New York – Pamplet B nego
October 17th – Golf Tournament – Brookside Country Club.
Theme will be Broadway.
Thanks to Merisol and Diane Lauerman for their efforts.
Blessed to be the voice for out musicians. It’s exciting.
Everyday’s a learning experience.
Marc Sazar spoke on Video Contract – Right of new media.
Fox and ABC have now started streaming old TV content
immediately. TV like recording and everything else is going
to streaming.
FINANCIAL REPORT
2015 rev 4,319,365 – up from last year
Expenses 4350738 down from last year
Net loss 32,382 in 2015
Loss down a lot from 2014.
2016
1st Quarter – 1,641,218
Clerical 3% raise.
December 13th is the next election at Local 47.
Since no quorum.
Board will decide the trial board position tomorrow.
END OF MEETING NOTES
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II. RESPONSES TO “POLLINATION”
How much of OUR dollars has the current administration SPENT
to tell US HOW & WHAT they want US to vote their way?!?
I am sure that the monies the current administration has spent
to persuade us HOW to vote, and how to THINK their way would
have repaired OUR fine old Union building.
It seems that the MORE our union leaders need money to pay,
among other things, their high, fine salaries, the MORE we
NEED to SELL the building.
So what happens when they spend all that money? Do they
have an answer to the DIMINISHING REVENUES coming in
the form of Work and Yearly dues?
Do Mssrs. Acosta, Baptist, and our Secretary/Treasurer have
any answers, MAGIC OR REASONABLE, to revive the work that
has disappeared from Hollywood’s Sound Stages? Do you wonder
at why Rick Baptist stopped playing the trumpet for fun & profit,
and ran for Union office? He is a very intelligent person, and saw
what has happened to our sources of income as many studio
players have found out, the hard way.
I was both lucky, and fortunate, to have worked in the business
from my first record date with Val Alexander in 1959, till thirty
or so years later, when President Bernie Fleischer hired me soon
after as a recording rep. I wanted to keep playing, but I realized
it was time and I had to move on.
Some time later, Max Herman asked me to run of V.P., and I
accepted, thankfully & gladly. As long as you get called to
work, and make a living at playing, music prep, writing,
producing, contracting, or whatever you do in the music
business, it’s usually fun, and great, and we all want to keep
doing it, right? I did it as long as the phone rang!
I was a member of the recording fraternity for many years,
and as a UNION OFFICER I saw the loss of work happening.
I learned first hand, what many producers, and industry
movers & shakers wanted to get rid of; Secondary payments!
You may not like it, but that’s the truth. If you don’t believe,
ask the people that know people who work with industry,
such as Jay Cooper.
My own first hand encounter of this was when I contacted
the talented composer, Michael Kamen, who is no longer
with us, to ask why he was scoring “Die Hard With a
Vengeance” in Seattle. He told me how much he loved
recording here in Los Angeles, but it because of the producers.
My secretary spent most of the week plowing through all the
A.D.’s Secretaries, Special Assistants, etc., till I got Andy
Vagna on the phone. I told him that I’d heard that his company
trucked all the necessary equipment to Seattle, installed it in
a church or chapel that was supposed to have acoustics as
good as Fox or MGM, but blew out every fuse, circuit breaker, etc.,
in the place. Then, after it had all been repaired, the SeattleOrch.
which is no longer affiliated with the Union, packed up one day,
in mid session, according to the story I’d been told, because
they were contracted to do a concert, and had to go.
I asked Mr. Vagna, “Why not do it here?’
He replied, “Cost!” I said, “If your gross was less than 30 mil
the first weekend, I’ll come over and personally Simoniz your
Bentley.” He said, “The back end!” He told him what the back
end would be only so & so much dollars, and he responded
very emphatically, “It’s so many thousand I can’t put in my
pocket!! F—- You!” I said, Well, I’d like to talk to you, see
if there’s a way to do this
” There’s NOT!” and banged the phone down.
I realize that this is a business, and if you are working every
day, and on or in the top 200 or so, Life is Good, and I’m glad
for you. If you’re not, perhaps it’s a fact of Life; and matter
of dollars, and some producers’ sense of business!
The late Lew Wasserman, the former head of Universal Studios,
who was largely responsible for building that Show Biz Empire,
told our former president, Max Herman when we went on strike
for secondary use payments on TV show, “Listen, Max! You and
the musicians are going down the wrong road! We’ll give you
higher scales,more money but we WILL NEVER give you secondary
payments when we resell our TV shows!” Max knew we wouldn’t
want to hear that, and kept quiet about it. But many years later,
Max confided what Mr. Wasserman had told him.
When my fellow musicians were about to lose their homes,
etc., Max stopped me on the stairs to the Credit Union, and
said, “BIll, what can we do to help you members during
this strike?” I responded, “Why don’t you officers forgo your
salaries, and put them into a Relief Fund for the members
who are losing their homes, and so on, as long as we’re on
strike?!?”
Max kind of spluttered, but finally told me, “The By-Laws
don’t allow that!”
I replied,
“THEN CHANGE THE BYLAWS!”
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LA is getting roughly one third (maybe 40 movies) of all t
he possible theatrical 120 ish releases be it large budget
studio pictures to small budget inde movie shorts – for
various reasons but mostly producers do not want to
work for an organization that has so many flaws and
is ANTI relationship sometimes – not all the time – there
are wins every day with AFM jobs coming back to LA
and also AFM losses every day going out of LA – there is
a global market now and frankly many of the other global
recording locations are providing something better whether
it’s lower cost or “good enough” quality – at the end of the
day – are we in LA doing all we can to remain a location
for recordings? – my opinion is not to offer an answer
but to pose up this question once again – “are we happy in
LA only getting one third of the recording work we used to get?”
I am not…….
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III. COMMENTS
Who will run to replace the “bobble heads” on the Board?