This arrived in the mail while I was at the ICSOM Conference. It was dated August 21.
August 21, 2008
Dear Robert,
When I lost the election in 2005 to Tom Lee, I determined that the membership had spoken and I needed to just ride off into the sunset. Recent events have compelled me to share some information with you. I still think of many of you, and the friendships we had during my years of service.
Over the years I was honored to serve on many committees. I was on the Blue Ribbon Committee, the Organizing Committee, the Revitalization Committee, the Three Year Plan and finally, the Futures Committee.
All of these committees came up with good ideas, but sadly, few were ever implemented. My personal take on that has always been, that our leadership was unwilling to make changes mostly for political reasons and our Local Officers were afraid that any change to the status quo would somehow weaken their influence in the Federation. Thus we have gone on for years with no one willing to restructure our organization to make it stronger and more viable going forward.
A few days ago I received my International Musician magazine in the mail. I was astounded by the irony of the articles on page six by our elected officers, Sam Folio and Bill Skolnik. Sam's article calls for the radio industry to pay residual payments to side musicians who have performed on records. In this age of cyberspace communication, he's going after AM-FM Radio??? Good luck tilting that windmill. Anybody remember how much time and effort The AFM spent on "Live-PALRA?" By the way, Sam lists a quote from The Reno Gazette-Journal in his article. He does fail to mention however, that he was the author of that article. I guess he's quoting himself. I'm not sure.
Right below Sam's article, Bill Skolnik tells the tale of a recent meeting organized by Local 802 in New York City. In addition to musicians, sound engineers, studio owners, contractors and Federation Officers attended. A couple of members who attended that meeting called me and asked what they could do about a whole bunch of employers being present at a meeting discussing a major "give-back" on a contract that has been working great for over 50 years. They asked to remain anonymous, which is a sad commentary on our leadership as it is. A survey was passed out for people to fill out. Here are a couple of the questions on the survey. Remember here that the room was full of employers, who believe it or not, also took the survey.
Would you be agreeable to work under a sliding scale which pays a gradually reduced hourly rate as the number of "musician hours" on a recording project increase.
(My take-Gee, that sounds to good to be true. The more we work, the less we get!)
Would you be agreeable to work for an upfront combined use payment In lieu of having the opportunity to receive residual payments from secondary markets?
(Again, some Union Officers would like you to believe that by giving up the most important part of the recording agreements that have been negotiated and granted years ago, will mean that other musicians will take the work away from the AFM musicians who are presently doing that work. Boy, isn't that unionism at its finest!) Hello Bill----Buyouts are anti-union. Duh! So, on the same page of the IM. we have one officer espousing a new residual payment for AM-FM Radio, an almost extinct venue, while another Officer is wanting to destroy a residual benefit we already have in the sound recording contract. Unbelievable!
The truth is that producers record wherever they please. Most of them choose Los Angeles because that's where they live, that's where most of the pre-production facilities and post-production facilities are. That is where most of the world's recording takes place. Unfortunately for my Local 10-208, a lot of the Jingle business that we have enjoyed for many years has shifted to L.A. Of course we in Chicago didn't like to see this happen. Should we blame the L.A. musicians for what the producers decided to do? Recordings will occur in other parts of the country and the world but that does not change the fact that the fundamental workplace for this industry is in L.A. Incidentally, all the other Unions and Guilds in the recording industry have residual benefits and back end payments. AFTRA- SAG-IATSE-WGA- DGA.
By the way, no one has claimed authorship to this survey. But I do know that it was not put together by players, it was not put together by film producers, it was not put together by studio owners and it was not put together by engineers. HMMM, who does that leave? Apparently, it’s not the musicians, stirring this pot.
A few years ago our Canadian brothers and sisters got a concession from the IEB to basically produce recordings without the back end payments. It was called The CCPR (Canadian Content Production Rules). There were provisions in the agreement to limit the size of those projects and other limitations. Alas, our Canadian officers were reluctant to file reports and generally keep us informed of the agreement. They started ignoring those provisions almost immediately. Then Dave Jandrisch decided to renew the agreement himself by sending a secret letter to Tom Lee and not sharing this news with the IEB or anyone else with a vested interest in the business. At a meeting in Canada, well stacked with vocal supporters for continuing this sweetheart deal, Bill Skolnik indignantly proclaimed that they were not the USA, they were CANADA, a sovereign Nation and should be able to pick and choose what part of the Federation by-laws they cared to obey. (This is a paraphrase of Bill Skolnik's speech at that meeting. I don't remember the exact words, but I'm sure you can find enough people that were there to confirm that I got the gist of it right.)
I am a happily retired guy, who really cares about this unfair and unnecessary treatment of our members. I hope that some of you agree that something has to be done before you get to a point where nothing can be done. Nobody ever, ever, mentions that the US members' money has been subsidizing the whole Canadian operation for years. Simply put, we pay them more in salaries and services than they send us in income and dues. If they are so hell bent on ruining our recording contracts and getting special deals for themselves, why don't they just decertify from the Federation. They then would be free to set whatever low recordings scales and non-benefits they wanted. Somehow I think the US recording industry would survive.
By the way, I walked off the Convention floor in 2007 after the vote to seat Montreal was passed. I was completely awestruck that we would violate our own By-Laws in spite of the fact that it was proven that Tom Lee had orchestrated that deal right down to the last direction for everyone to applaud. Federation By-laws make it unlawful to seat any Local behind in Federation obligations. But this was Montreal. In case anybody is in the dark ...... It was all about their votes.
Pay attention! Sam say's that we are on solid financial footing. The Financial Report say's differently. Unless you would consider that taking money from the relocation fund to improve the bottom line is OK.
We are spending a lot of money plus expenses for a full time lobbyist in Washington. That's pretty good for a Union that has fewer than 90,000 members. Maybe more, maybe less, who knows? Besides getting our officers pictures taken with P\politicians, is this money being well spent? Is anyone monitoring what's going on anymore. Is anyone controlling expenses?
Does anyone care that we're spending over $125,000 each per year on our two full time officers who are seldom in the office, because most of their time is spent out politicking I know it makes some people feel important, but how do the rest of you feel about that?
You know that the Music Performance Fund is just about dead. John Hall asked our help years ago when he warned us that we will need to find other ways to fund it. I cannot believe that we all are watching it bite the dust and no one has ever suggested that we find ways to fund it ourselves. Ironically, the only ones that ever funded it were the Recording Musicians. We sure know how to thank them.
I was disappointed when I lost the election in 2005. Not because I didn't win, but because the opposition put out the word that I was a pawn of the RMA and was against the small locals. Nothing was farther from the truth. I had plans to really help all of the locals, not just convene yet another "reform committee" to plan big and do little. I had hopes to restructure the player conferences to give the people who do that work and understand their workplace the power to decide what is good for them.
The whole problem with Tom Lee and the RMA was and continues to be that Tom wants to control things and wants to prove that he is right and everyone in the recording business is wrong. Tom was then, and continues to be dead wrong in this matter, but he will never give in, no matter how much it damages you and our Union.
It is true that I wanted to reform our structure, but in an orderly manner that would make this a stronger Federation for The Big Locals, The Small Locals, The Symphony Musicians, The Recording Musicians, The Life Members.
In addition to all of the "Reform-Future" committees that we convened over the years, Bill Moriarty wrote a pamphlet about his vision of the future for the AFM. It's still a good read. Maybe some of you can spearhead a movement to take a look at Bill's ideas and revisit all of the old committee proposals. I still hope that there are those of you out there, willing to "Step up to the Plate" (oops, bad analogy.)
And finally, please do not misconstrue the purpose of this letter. I am no longer a Local or Federation Officer. My only wish is that some of you will more actively participate in Union governance.
My Friends, I wish you well,
Ed Ward
I can't recall a previous occasion when a retired local officer and defeated candidate for national office went to the trouble of doing anything like this. It would apear that things are heating up within the AFM.
Ed, Hal and how many the other victims of the Tom Lee corruption Machine!
Ed and or Hal would have fixed the AFM or at least put it back in positive direction.
Tom Lee is sitting on to many non-AFM board seats to get anything done and if Tom Lee trys to run the AFL-CIO that would be the nail in the coffin of that organization, at least John Sweeny was an Organizer back in the day, the only Tom Lee ever organized was the destruction of Union Reps/ and officers careers and the shutting down of the expansion of the AFM.
How many bodies are around from the corruption of bad union officials and their lust for power?
I am seeing it not only in the AFM but also in the UFCW, Teamsters, SEIU and CWA.
Union organizers, Business Reps and officers who started working for the unions for the right reasons only to find dead weight no talent criminals in the way of advancing the unions-labor movement.
I washed my hands of AFM Local 12 membership on the 1st of January, they are still paying Joe Benson's AFM Pension credits even thought the former AFM Local 12 officer has been in federal prison since July of 2005 for his 5th and 6th child Molestation charges of 2 boys who were musicians at the Sacramento Youth Symphony.
Benson will not get out of prison until 2017 however the AFM is still paying him off with pension contribution while he is incarcerated.
Tom Lee & Sam Folio were informed in 2005 & 2006 in writing.
The AFM Pension was also notified.
The Illegal Local 12 AFM payroll service (a private business operating inside AFM Local 12 with no oversight and in excess of $ 4,000,000.00+ each year) Is still defrauding Social Security, Workers Compensation, unemployment benefits and the IRS.
A AFM Local 12 member killed in a car wreak on the way to a AFM contacted gig family was screwed out of benefits when the AFM contract "Disappeared" after this members death and was put down as a non-union-non contracted DARK DATE!
Bush's Department of Labor fails to investigates the Unions and the AFM because it serves the Bush Crime family and all business interests to have incompetent and corrupt union officers who keep the union from growing, they (the Union officers on the take) that they will not be hassled by the DOL/OLSM as long as the Status Quo remains.
Labor leaders and union has been bought as sold and are owned by business interests.
Until these bastards died in office or go to jail nothing will change.
A strong labor movement and growing union is not in the best interest of those controlling unions today.
Ed & Hal are great guys and if Tom Lee was not a psychopath and Sam Folio a Carnival Barker The AFM back in the 1990 would have been growing organization.
Over 30 years of these Clowns Scamming and working against the AFM have brought us to what we have today a slowly Dying Union, but if you look at their time line and the years before they retire you will see EVERTYTHING Tom Lee & Sam Folio have done has been for their own personal interests even if it was not in the best interest of the AFM at large, they have timed the Collaspe of the AFM to happen just after they retire.
Coincidence? make this puppy live at least until we retire.....
MTM
Posted by: Michael Troy Moore | September 21, 2008 at 01:57 PM
And so, two very decent men - Ed Ward in '05 and Hal Espinosa in '07 - were ground up by the AFM's arcane structure and Tom Lee's political machine.
Posted by: michael | August 28, 2008 at 11:43 PM