June 1, 2010
Dear Delegates of the United States and Canada:
In 1948, the Music Performance Fund (MPF) was created to compensate musicians displaced by the recording industry. Since then, MPF has paid musicians over a billion dollars, making it one of the world’s largest sponsors of live music.
But today, MPF is dying. Trustee John C. Hall said that unless we take action, “it’s only a matter of what month the doors would be shut.”
Now, a new source of displacement has emerged: foreign orchestras. Promoters and producers of concert tours in the United States and Canada import foreign orchestras and pay AFM a visa processing fee of $200 – $250 per foreign musician. AFM has collected over $3.6 million since 2004 in visa processing fees.
Displacement of AFM musicians was the reason we created MPF in 1948.
Displacement of AFM musicians is the reason to save MPF in 2010.
Resolution 17 saves MPF by redirecting visa processing fees to MPF, to be distributed to musicians throughout the United States and Canada.
AFM's administration, which hid visa processing fees on financial statements under "other income" until 2007, will argue that saving MPF will financially hurt the AFM. But AFM has not earned this money. AFM is not entitled to a cash cow which puts musicians out of work. AFM’s first duty is to fight the displacement of its members.
Vote YES on Resolution 17.
In solidarity,
Ed Shamgochian
Delegate of Local 143 (Worcester, MA)
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