March 15, 1975: The American Federation of Musicians
I’ve been a union guy all my years at
The
March 15,
1975
Rock
Musicians, Union Leaders Discuss the Rules
“I DON’T KNOW WHY I’m even in the union. I get the paper every month and
I pay my dues. Otherwise, they don’t do anything for me.”
That’s a young rock
musician talking. He’s been a member of Buffalo Local 92, American Federation
of Musicians, AFL-CIO, for more than five years.
Every week his group
plays five or six nights and grosses $1,000 to $1,200. He says they break union
rules every time they go onstage.
“If we went by the
book,” he explains, “we’d have to get at least $300 a night. And if we asked
some club owner for that, he’d tell us to take a walk.
“I can think of only
three or four rock bands in the city that make union scale,” he adds. “For the
rest of us, we either have to take less or we don’t work.”
This kind of angry
indifference toward the union is not uncommon among young full-time rock and
jazz musicians in the
* * *
WHY DO THESE musicians join the union? First, it gives them a
professional legitimacy. Second, the best gigs are union-only.
If a player hopes to get
anywhere in the business, he has to have a union card.
He has to have it to
play radio and TV shows. And he has to have it to play the most prestigious
rooms in the city and its suburbs, all of which fall under union protection.
Musicians who play there
enjoy a guaranteed $9 an hour, double pay for playing two instruments, a
mileage rate for traveling and extra pay for carting around drums and amps.
Plus legal assistance, if necessary.
But most young rock and
jazz players expend most of their talents in places that are less than
prestigious, without contracts and without union protection. They say it’s
either that or no work at all.
* * *
TO FIND OUT why, The News talked to union leaders throughout Erie
and Niagara counties – Vincent Impellitter, president of Local 92 (1,450
members); Herman Janus, president of Tonawandas Local 209 (365 members) and Sal
Paonessa, secretary and business agent of Niagara Falls Local 106 (475
members).
Also Robert Foster,
secretary of Lockport Local 97 (241 members); Herman Young, secretary of
Hamburg Local 649 (208 members); and Clarence Hopper, secretary of East Aurora
Local 366 (514 members).
The News also spoke with
officials of Toronto Local 149 (7,147 members); Perry Gray, the union’s
international rep from
The union leaders
themselves reflect the main constituency of the locals here. They are former
orchestra players who came up in the big band era, took full-time non-music
jobs and kept gigging on weekends.
* * *
AN EXCEPTION is Impellitter, a trumpter who broke in during the
dying days of the pit bands in
Musicians were among the
first Americans to unionize. The AFM dates from 1896 and its earliest
forerunners were formed in the 1860s. They also were one of the earliest
victims of modern technology.
The rise of radio,
talking movies and phonograph records in the ‘20s and ‘30s hurt the live-music
business badly and put many musicians out of work.
Through two bitter
strikes against the recording industry in the ‘40s, the union was able to
insure the preservation of extensive live music and remain a viable enforcement
agency.
It was then that
patterns were set which prevail today.
Except for a few
big-city locals, where radio, TV, movies and records offer steady work, the
union has become basically a protective association for its part-time majority
and a watchdog on its full-time minority.
The part-timers are the
ones who benefit most from the Music Perforance Trust Fund (MPTF) set up on
concessions won in the recording strike of 1948.
It’s financed by a slice
of record sales receipts, run independently and divided among locals according
to how many members they have. Janus reports the Tonawandas local gets roughly
$5,000 a year from MPTF.
MPTF gives musicians
non-commercial jobs they wouldn’t otherwise have. And who hasn’t enjoyed them
playing without charge for parades, free dances, summer outdoor concerts and
shows for the elderly, hospital patients and school kids.
The union also tries to
make sure musicians get a fair deal when they play commercially.
“People always seem to
try to cut down on the musician,” says Paonessa.
“The thing that gripes
me,” he adds, “is that people’ll spend thousands of dollars on a wedding and
when it comes to a couple hundred dollars for the band, they squabble over it.”
* * *
THIS IS WHERE the rule book comes in – setting fees, hours,
conditions, restrictions.
The union can sue an
employer who breaks a contract and it can urge union musicians to boycott an
errant club.
But in the end the union
only has the power to slap its own members. It’s a matter of keeping musicians
in a solid, united front. They don’t always stay in line.
A union player who gets
caught breaking a rule can be fined by the local’s board of directors. This,
and the union’s tradition of allowing each local to set and police its own
rules, is a major complaint of young full-timers.
“The trouble with the
locals is just that they’re local,” exclaims one who wants to see national
rules.
* * *
ONE YOUNG player, faced with $500 in fines, quit the union.
Others, frustrated, have stopped playing entirely.
Under Impellitter, the
But enforcement puts him
in a tough spot. He’s got a big territory –
The
* * *
ONE IS favoritism.
There are old
jurisdictional feuds. Suburban players (who can join suburban unions for a
fraction of
Those who have gigged in
Toronto, where rules are firm and virtually every room is union, wonder why
this isn’t the case here.
Full-timers would like
to see reforms to accommodate rock and jazz players, rules and services which
would meet their artistic and electronic needs. But union leaders discourage
these ideas. One suggestion is a competency rating, similar to apprentice and
journeyman classes in trade unions.
“Then,” says one jazz
player, “if you get some guy off the union roster, at least you’ll know if he
can play.”
Union leaders don’t
think this would work out.
“It’s impossible,” says
Gray. “I know musicians who if I gave them a test, they’d never make it. But
they have a stage presence that people accept.”
* * * * *
IN THE PHOTO: Vincent Impellitter, president of Local 92.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE: These days
there’s only one local covering all of
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