Summer 2013 Volume 67, Number 1

AGMAZINEAGMAZINEOfficial Publication of the American Guild of Musical Artists A Branch of the Associated Actors and Artistes of America • Affiliated with the AFL-CIO Summer 2013 Volume 67, Number 1 How AGMA Works For You s c h e d u l e d b r e a k s AGMA negotiates break times for AGMA negotiates your Collective their members into Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for the contracts they AGMA members. make with AGMA companies. & AGMA has a AGMA is always watching out for its National Smoke members’ safety in the workplace. and Fog Policy. Page 2 AGMAzine Summer 2013 What’s The Goal, Who’s the Client? By Alan S. Gordon, National Executive Director Every entertainment most of our work is “hidden” is that it ance pay to members who had worked union, including involves discreet personal problems of there, and the loss of some future work, AGMA, represents individual members, not appropriate for an however diminished. How do you evalu- a diverse group of open discussion. That’s why we’re here, ate those decisions? In my heart, there members. AGMA however, to help members. That’s what was no question but to help the members, represents singers, you get in return for paying your dues. but intellectually I knew the “price” that dancers and produc- But…if you need help, you have to ask. AGMA as an institution paid for that help. tion staff. Some work full-time, some Over the years, we’ve gotten dozens of thank In 1999, the AGMA of 2013 was almost work part-time, some you notes from the members that we’ve unimaginable. To the extent that AGMA as work sporadically and some are retired. helped. Of course, thanks aren’t necessary, an institution is the client, there’s little Some work freelance and some on staff. it’s our job. But the most satisfying thank you doubt that we’ve done well in accomplish- Some work for signatory companies, oth- letter I’ve ever received came from one mem- ing the client’s best interests. We’re ers work primarily in AGMA categories ber who had long been “anti-AGMA,” paying strong, have extensive human and finan- for non-AGMA employers. My job, and their dues late, always complaining that cial resources, and provide the member- the job of AGMA’s executive staff, is to AGMA did nothing for them. That member ship with what a union should provide. represent “the members”—all of “the wrote: “I apologize for the things I’ve said. Now, however, the Executive Council, the members,” all categories of members and When I learned what you did for my friend, Board of Governors and, ultimately, the all current and future members, even (member X), I never realized that AGMA membership has to weigh in on what they though the interests of some groups with- would go to any length and devote its entire want from their union over the next ten in the membership are inconsistent with key staff and its outside counsel to helping years. You have to decide whether, if the the interests of others. one member with a difficult personal prob- “client” is the membership, are members lem. I now realize that what you’ve said is getting something of value for their dues, To do that job, we often have to ask: What’s true: AGMA really is there to help. I’ll never whether those dues amount to $2,000 a the goal, who’s the client? be late with my dues again.” Generally speak- year or $78 a year; whether what we’re ing, apart from collective bargaining and vot- doing for you is or is not working; whether Defining the “goal” is easy: to us, in the first ing on their contracts, only those members it has the intended effect; what can be instance, that means doing the two tradition- that we actually help personally know what improved; whether there are better alter- al core functions of any union: 1) to success- AGMA can, and does, do for them. natives; and whether the goals are appro- fully negotiate, draft, administer and enforce priate for the interests of the client. Where collective bargaining agreements that protect If defining our “goal” is easy, identifying do we go from here? And, how far should and advance the wages, hours and working our “client” is concomitantly difficult. Is the we stray from the “core functions” that we conditions of members working under those “client” the union as an institution, which perform or the “core functions” of a labor contracts, and 2) to keep AGMA, as an insti- has to stay strong and vibrant, now and into union? Absent a different instruction, the tution, well run, efficient, current, and with the future? Or is the “client” the member or staff and I operate under the continuing sufficient financial and human resources to members that need help? standard that AGMA should be all things enable it to perform that core function. to all members. This is not just an abstract philosophical Defining the second part of our goal is question. It has real consequences. In the I can envision many alternatives for likewise easy: To help members. We help recent New York City Opera debacle, AGMA as an institution: a world in which any member who asks for help. To a very there was a bona fide difference between we stay just as we are, which will probably real extent, however, that part of our job is what would be good for the client if the mean more work for fewer members, at “hidden,” and usually known only to the client was identified as the union institu- better wages, represented by a healthy individual members that we help. tionally, and what would be good if the union. I can also envision a world where Elsewhere in this issue, you’ll find stories client was the City Opera members. The we merge with Equity rather than into it, or about some of those individual members. ability to close down City Opera and where Stage Directors and Choreographers But for each of those stories, there are hun- drive it out of existence might well have or AGVA become part of AGMA, or the dreds of other members that we’ve helped, been better institutionally: Don’t mess formation of an Alliance of Performing with both personal, agent or work-related with AGMA or we’ll close you down. But Artists to serve all members better, or a problems, both directly through the union, the cost of helping AGMA’s reputation world where AGMA leaves the AFL-CIO, legally and contractually, or indirectly would have been the loss of tens if not affiliates with the Teamsters, loses some through the Relief Fund. The reason that hundreds of thousands of dollars in sever- (continues on page 8) AGMAzine Summer 2013 Page 3 (Cough, cough) Nulla, nulla! FROM THE I am old. There our article, which is where we started all those many long words ago), is no getting or “no biggy”. Spoiler alert: turns out it actually is a biggy. She falls PRESIDENT around that any hard for her duet partner, they move to the country. His old man is a longer. The rea- major a**hat and breaks them up. They get back together but only JAMES ODOM son I can no seconds before she starts the big dirt nap because of old opera disease, longer deny it is which she contracted hours ago in the first act. Bring in the curtain because I find and we can all go home. myself reminisc- ing about how Now I know most of you out there are rolling your eyes and/or things used to be, screaming “Jimmy, for the love of all that is holy, if you have a back when I first started in this crazy business. I am acknowledging point, get to it!” Fine, you don’t have to yell. I do have a point and this now, up front, before we get to the point where you roll your eyes here it is, although I have to admit that it is only vaguely related to and say, “Geez, Jimmy, how did you move scenery before the inven- the above, if at all. tion of the wheel?” Let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. And we walked ten miles to school. In the snow. Uphill both ways. With nothing but There has been a great deal of discussion on certain social media animal pelts wrapped around our feet. Now you kids get off my lawn! sites over the last several weeks regarding complaints from certain individuals who believe that singers are irresponsibly cancelling per- Sorry, I got carried away. formances for little or no reason, other than to make those certain individuals’ lives a living hell. Perhaps I exaggerate, but not by Now some of you Dancers out there who are too busy… well, being much. I personally find this notion to be insulting. I also have per- awesome, to spend time memorizing opera libretti and/or have never sonal experience to the contrary. had the opportunity to be a gypsy maiden or matador in La Traviata may not understand the title of this article. (Concert Choral singers, no Over the many years of my career, I have seen a fair share of can- excuses. You should know this stuff. Production staff, most of you cellations. I remember one especially exciting performance of should know it, too, but could be given a pass based on the fact that Traviata during which we went through three tenors—a new one for just getting the rest of us to where we’re supposed to be when we’re each act.

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