Dear colleagues,
This past week, the American Federation of Musicians held two days of caucus meetings in New York to prepare for Sound Recording Labor Agreement negotiations. We gathered in New York at AFM headquarters in Times Square; President Hair, legal counsel, staff, officers and representatives of the International Executive Board and Locals around North America.
Your RMA Committee for these negotiations includes rank-and-file representative Neil Stubenhaus, 47 rank-and-file representative Steve Dress, and me as RMA President. We were joined in New York by Roger Blanc Gail Kruvand and Chris Parker, all officers of RMA-NY.
Our caucus is union-side only; we reviewed data, heard reports from staff and counsel, and grappled with proposals for us to make across the table, as well as analyzed what we expect the record companies to propose to us. Our RMA team had helped the AFM and locals gather crucial information about the functioning of the contract over the past 3 years; we would like to thank all of you who brought us your ideas and concerns that we were able to carry into the caucus.
One element that is unprecedented this time around is the environment created by the litigation against the companies that has been filed by our Pension Fund. You can read about the legal action, and even read the full legal filing, here:http://afm.org/announcements/
We will travel back to New York for negotiations on September 28, and we’ll keep you posted about developments as they arise.
Stay tuned!
Marc Sazer
President, RMA
