AFM LOCAL 47 Vol. 1 No. 11 November 2015 online Happy Thanksgiving! ‘Time Is Now’ Mail Referendum: BROAD OPENING GALA Send in your ballots by Feb. 1, 2016 L.A’s newest museum kicks off with a bang DISCLAIMER Overture Online is optimized for viewing in its native App version as published in the Apple App Store & Google Play. This pdf version of Overture Online does not contain the live html links or other interactive elements as they appear in the App version, and serves to exist for archival reference only. A digital archive of Overture Online containing all interactive elements may be accessed at the following link: afm47.org/press/category/overture-online ISSN: 2379-1322 Publisher Editor AFM Local 47 Gary Lasley 817 Vine Street Managing Editor / Ad Manager Hollywood, CA 90038-3779 Linda A. Rapka p 323.462.2161 f 323.993.3195 Graphic Design / Asst. Layout Editor www.afm47.org Candace Evans Titled Officers Hearing Board President: John Acosta Alan Estes, Chuck Flores, Overture Online is the official electronic Vice President: Rick Baptist Jon Kurnick, Jeff Lass, monthly magazine of the American Federa- Secretary/Treasurer: Gary Lasley Norman Ludwin, Allen Savedoff, tion of Musicians Local 47, a labor union for Marc Sazer Trustees professional musicians located in Holly- Judy Chilnick, Dylan Hart, Hearing Representative wood. Bonnie Janofsky Vivian Wolf Directors Salary Review Board Formed by and for Los Angeles musicians Pam Gates, John Lofton, Stephen Green, Norman Ludwin, Andy Malloy, Phil O’Connor, Marie Matson, Paul Sternhagen over a century ago, Local 47 promotes and Bill Reichenbach, Vivian Wolf protects the concerns of musicians in all Fair Employment Practices areas of the music business. Our jurisdic- Delegates to AFM Convention Committee John Acosta, Rick Baptist, Ray Brown, Beverly Dahlke-Smith tion includes all counties of Los Angeles Pam Gates, Bonnie Janofsky, (except the Long Beach area). With more Gary Lasley, Norman Ludwin Grievance Committee Ray Brown, Lesa Terry than 7,000 members, Local 47 negotiates 1st Alternate Delegate with employers to establish fair wages Phil O’Connor Legislative Committee and working conditions for our members. Kenny Dennis, Greg Goodall, 2nd Alternate Delegate Dan Greco, Lisa Haley, Ken Munday, Local 47 officers and staff enforce union Vivian Wolf Stephanie O’Keefe, Jason Poss contracts, assuring professional standards Officers Emertius Orientation Committee and treatment for our musicians. Secretary/Treasurer Emeritus John Acosta, Rick Baptist, Serena Kay Williams Gary Lasley Local 47 is affiliated with the American President Emeritus Hal Espinosa President Emeritus Vince Trombetta Relief Committee Federation of Musicians of the United Gary Lasley, Jack Redman, States and Canada, the largest organi- Election Board Ed Vodicka, Vivian Wolf Brian O’Connor, Stephen Green, zation in the world representing the -in Scott Higgins, Marie Matson, Wage Scale Committee terests of professional musicians, which Jay Rosen, Paul Sternhagen, Judy Chilnick, Greg Huckins, encompasses more than 400 Locals and Mark Zimoski Bonnie Janofsky, Phil O’Connor, Rob Schaer represents 85,000 musicians throughout North America. Advertisement Contents Navigate back to Contents by clicking the “O” links Overture Online / Vol. 1 No. 11 / November 2015 / afm47.org Happy Thanksgiving! Columns Ballots are mailed, and we need your vote! Send in your ballot for the Mail-in Referen- dum to authorize the Vine Street property Officer Reports sale. Read updates @ TimeIsNow47.org. Letters to the Editor Features At the Local Organizing Sign Up for Direct Deposit Musicians’ Interguild Credit Union and Local 47 partner to offer members direct deposit On the Town Final Notes Broad Museum Opens With Extravagant Bang Eli and Edythe Broad commemorate the opening of their new downtown museum with a massive two-day celebration Labor News Open Mic Winding Up 2015 and Moving Forward Into ’16! An update from the Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund Gig Junction Credit Union My Adventures in Cuba Violinist Doug Cameron shares about his eye-opening journey to the Caribbean nation Health & Welfare Bulletin Board RMA Night 2015 Photo gallery from the annual Recording Musicians Association fundraiser Auditions Classifieds LA Jazz Society 2015 Tribute Awards Concert Life Member George Bohanon and songwriters Alan & Marilyn Bergman to be honored Advertise Advertisement President John Acosta Members of Local 47: The President’s office belongs to you. It is always open to the musicians of Local 47 and the American Federation of Musi- cians. Anytime you choose to drop in for a visit, please feel free to do so. So begins past Local 47 President J.K. “Spike” Wallace’s February 1950 Officers report. And as your current president I extend to you the same invitation. The President’s office and this Local belong to you. Take part in our assemblies and discussions, join a committee, or participate in an action. The union isyou , the membership – your leadership are only temporary stewards. Building Sale Update By now all of you should have received your ballot on the building ref- erendum. As we reported to you in previous Overtures, this is a critical vote to sell the old Vine Street property and relocate to a more mod- ern facility in the Burbank/Glendale area. Last month we had a special meeting of the Musicians’ Club to discuss the referendum, where many members voiced their support, opposition and/or general concerns about this possible sale and move. As a result of the many questions you shared the Executive Board held several open lunch meetings for members to come and ask their questions about the referendum. If you are still undecided about how to vote I urge you to visit the refer- endum website at TimeIsNow47.org where many of your questions are answered. Many musicians complain that “the union isn’t getting me any work” or “why are we spending so much time on the building referendum in- stead of trying to find more work for musicians?” As much as we would like to provide work for our members, that is not what this union does, or has ever done. It is not set up like the welder’s union, for example, where potential employers come down to the union hall to find em- ployees. Our mission is to organize, negotiate and enforce contracts, ensure that proper benefits are paid and working conditions enforced. And while we offer many services to enhance and improve your work as a musician, finding you work is not the union’s primary function. And as has been stated many times, all electronic media contracts are national contracts, negotiated by the Federation. The Local has recently given quite a lot of feedback to the AFM and the IEB on the direction we feel these contracts should be going. At the beginning of the year the mem- bership established a Local 47 Task Force to study what kind of changes should be made to our agreements, and a comprehensive report (avail- able upon request from the Vice President’s office) was reported to and approved by you the members. But the thinking behind having national contracts is that no one city should undercut another with regard to re- cording at bargain prices. The Executive Board feels strongly that the sale of our building and purchase of a less expensive building would net us many millions to use as investment money, generating much more interest income than we presently take in. The possibilities to use this money for organizing more work, gathering more signatories to our contracts, more legisla- tive action regarding tax incentives are exciting and a primary reason to move forward with the referendum to sell the building. We hope we can count on all of your support at this crucial time for our Union. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Fraternally yours, John Acosta President Vice President Rick Baptist This is my 10th Vice President’s report for the Overture. I don’t know why, but I have been agonizing over what I am going to write about. It is not for a lack of things to talk about; I have tried in my past reports to be clever and hopefully funny in my stories of my career change from studio musician to VP of the second largest musicians union in the country. I do not take my job lightly, but it has been so different, the transition from trumpeter to union officer. On Oct. 20 I went to NYC as your representative for the PBS contract negotiations. This was not the first time I had to fly to New York to represent our Local in negotiations for our national contracts – in Sep- tember I attended the SRLA negs in New York along with Eric Dawson, your Business Rep for Sound Recording. The SRLA negs were and are very complicated and I must say heated from both sides of the table. That was just round 1 in what I think will be a long negotiation; we have scheduled another session in January in NYC and February in L.A. My hope is that with our Federation leadership and all of our brother unions and rank-and-file that a very good outcome will be had for our musicians and our livelihood in the record field. Back to the PBS negotiations: Day 1 we met at our Federation offices to caucus with our team. Reps from New York, Boston, Chicago, Nash- ville and Los Angeles talked about what we were going to ask for from the other side. We have been working under a contract that expired in 2004 with no raises in scales or benefits. Our President Ray Hair was adamant about our members receiving a fair wage raise and of course other benefits that a union contract provides for us.