Day One is usually Talking Heads Day, and this is not going to be an exception.
President Ray Hair called the proceedings to order almost exactly on time - 11:01 AM MDT.
National Anthems were played and sung. An invocation was given by a gentleman who is, I think I heard, an officer with the Las Vegas local. The president of the Local welcomed the delegates to Las Vegas.
Ray asked the delegates to stand for a moment of silence in honor of former AFM president Steve Young, who died unexpectedly last year.
Ray gave his address.
He talked about the first AFM Convention in Indianapolis in 1896, and the continuity of mission from then until now.
Ray discussed the recent relocation of AFM headquarters in New York (from the 6th floor to the 9th floor of 1501 Broadway). He described it as relatively smooth and efficient. He praised the work of S/T Jay Blumenthal in making it all happen. Described the process; the AFM had made a deal to purchase space near the World Trade Center, which was all set to happen until the owners made it a requirement that the AFM purchase two floors rather than one. Given the limited amount of time (since the existing space had already be let to a new tenant), the IEB chose to lease again. (From Jay Blumenthal's remarks at the Midstates Conference meeting yesterday, cost to move and remodel was a little more than $2 million).
Ray talked about the officer training program. He praised the AFM staff as "indispensable." He said that turnover has been low since 2010.
He described the state of the AFM when the current administration took over as "dire." He said it took five years to finalize all the open negotiations. He said that the current stance of the AFM in negotiations is "very aggressive," especially in terms of streaming media. He said that the AFM was no longer at war with the player conferences or the members in negotiations. He said that the AFM had sued every major Hollywood studio over the past 3 years for unpaid use of material. The AFM has collected more than $2 million in settlements for contract violations in the last three years. He talked about a lawsuit against Paramount and MGM about outsourcing to overseas of scoring work, which resulted in a "landmark" victor in the 9th Circuit. He thanked General Counsel Emeritus Jeff Freund and Bredhoff & Kaisier for that.
He described lawsuits by the AFM-EPF against signatories that led to new agreements that will lead to $20 million additional income to the Fund from streaming, as well as additional money to MPTF. Label streaming revenue has led to a revival of MPTF. Ray described that as a goal that had led him to run for AFM president.
Ray thanked the film and recording musicians for their support of these negotiations, which have led to 1.5% of special payments income going directly to the AFM-EP Fund. He talked about how Youtube was using material from our members without payment to our members, even though Youtube was earning advertising income from that material. He talked about disruption in the online distribution business. "Producers are using streaming to turn good jobs into bad jobs." Even the stage hands are getting streaming income from these new channels; we're not. Studios and distribution channels are making massive amounts of money. Digital Media Association is trade association for the major digital companies (Apple, Amazon, Google, etc.) Total digital income was over %600 billion last year; this year expected to be $1 trillion.
There's a place for all members and all locals in this new campaign for our fair share of streaming media revenue. The IEB has committed "adequate" resources to this campaign.
Ray talked about events in Canada; new agreement with CBC with new residual payments, which means no more unfair advantage to doing work in Canada to avoid other AFM agreements. Talked about new symphonic Integrated Media Agreement; thanked ICSOM and ROPA officers for their help, with new provisions regarding streaming.
Ray talked about organizing department and their staff; chartering a new local in Boise Idaho because of organization work with Boise Philharmonic.
Talked about lobbying efforts in DC; thanked Alphonso Pollard and the DC local for their work. Working on changing tax law to bring back deductions for musician employees that were eliminated in Trump tax act, supporting the NEA and public broadcasting. Convinced Senator Sherrod Brown to name AFM-EPF as beneficiary of the Butch Lewis Act.
Ray introduced Dave Pomeroy, who sang the song he wrote for a rally in support of the Butch Lewis Act. Good song; standing ovation.
Ray talked about the Baltimore lockout; said that Mary Plaine can't be here from the Baltimore local because of the lockout.
Talked about TEMPO fund; we need more money to work with the other unions to get a better Congress.
Talked about the healthy financial state of the AFM; nine years of stability. Talked about having been an AFM officer for 36 years; local officer, IEB member, and AFM president. Talked about San Juan Hilton NLRB court decision, which was devastating to the AFM. He talked about his first convention in 1983 in Phoenix. We had 250,000 members. I began to see the adverse consequences of that court decision, making freelancers independent contractors rather than employees of the venue. Freelancers were thus excluded from the benefits of labor law. The real employer, the venue or purchaser, could not be held liable to bargain with the union. The AFM could no longer insist that its licensed bookers could only use union members. The bookers had been our organizers; now they were disorganizers.
We lost 85,000 members from 1978 to 1983, mostly freelancers who left because of that settlement.
He talked about a class action lawsuit by members against the AFM-EFF in 1985, claiming the the Fund was accepting contributions from independent contractors. Talked about other divisive conventions with difficult issues and infighting. In 2010 we chose unity over divisiveness.
He said the attacks over the pension fund issues have really hurt personally. I never thought that the folks I worked so hard for; that I'd have to tell them that something bad was going to happen. We all still suffer from two dirty words: "independent contractor."
Talked about the pension fund. Fund is now in critical and declining status; fund is projected to run out of money in 20 years, trustees chose to apply to benefit reductions to the Department of Treasury. All the musician trustees are here to talk to you about this. We appointed Brad Eggen as retiree representative, who has put together an advisory group to help him. They are here this week as well.
Fund's problems stem primarily from the following; tax laws required funds to increase benefits when assets increased. Second we lost $900 million in the 2008/09 crash. The aging of the plan's participant pool. And we have not established increasing employer contributions.
The Fund's problems have not stemmed from a lack of expertise. Resolution 8 is no solution. We can do nothing, which leads to the Fund going broke, or we can reduce benefits for some participants. There will be no government back stop if the Fund runs out of money; the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is also going to run out of money.
60% of current beneficiaries will be protected due to age or low benefits. Current plan is to reduce all the past multipliers except for the $1 per $100 multiplier. All participants will get advance notice of their individual reduction.
You have not lived as a union rep until you've gone into a union meting and been castigated by folks who've just come from dark dates and scabbing on our pension plan. Sometimes our members are the most effective union busters. This is real personal to me; I never really left the gig. We will become what we negotiate. We make the music the world wants to hear. There is plenty of money out there; divided, we'll never get it. Working together, we can.
Ray got a little emotional at the end, talking about unionism. He ended at 12:45 PM.
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