American Federation of Musicians – Page 3

Colorado Symphony Musicians’ AFM Representation In Question

Thursday, May 7th, 2015 by Drew McManus

Norman Lebrecht broke the news in a post from 5/6/2015 about the Colorado Symphony Orchestra Musicians filing a signed petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regarding the status of their official representation. Currently, the musicians are represented by the American Federation of Musicians (AFM); Denver Musicians Association (DMA), Local 20-623 AFM AFL-CIO; and now that we have our acronyms straight, let’s take a closer look at what we know. …

A Crisis Of Conscience Inside The AFM

Friday, April 10th, 2015 by Drew McManus

The topic of equal pay for equal work as applied to substitute musician wages has been an uphill examination over the past year. We began exploring the topic in the wake of the Minnesota Orchestra settlement that ended their season-killing lockout after learning the agreement failed to maintain wage parity for substitute musicians and even when the option of achieving parity through direct action was available, the musicians and their Local …

For MN Substitute Pay Disparity, No News Isn’t Good News

Friday, January 9th, 2015 by Drew McManus

Following up on the One Year Later, Minnesota Orchestra Pay Disparity Continues To Elicit Strong Opinions article from 1/5/2015, I contacted both representatives from the Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra (MOMA) along with Local 30-73, American Federation of Musicians (AFM), the regional office that represents the MN Orchestra musicians, to inquire whether or not there have been any efforts from either group to help alleviate or marginalize the impact of the disparity, …

Well This Is An Interesting Union Issue

Tuesday, June 17th, 2014 by Drew McManus

The 6/15/14 edition of the Toronto Star published an article by Allan Woods that reports the Quebec members of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) voted to separate from the parent union. Granted, the vote was nothing but close, a reported 53.3 percent majority, but the decision throws all sorts of wrenches into the governance works of the AFM thanks to a series of laws and regulations in Quebec that contradict, …

Met Negotiations Progress As Anticipated

Wednesday, May 14th, 2014 by Drew McManus

A move that might be best described as entirely expected, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra musicians unanimously authorized their negotiating committee to call a strike if negotiations fail to produce a new agreement after the current one expires on Thursday, July 31, 2014. Interestingly enough, the 5/12/2014 edition of the New York Times reported that the “union representing the orchestra…vot[e]d to authorize a strike should negotiations with management fail.” This is a …