Orchestra Governance: Musicians’ Unions

A collection of collective collectiveness.

Nearly all of the professional orchestral musicians are members of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). Within the AFM are two representative conferences which represent orchestra musicians; ICSOM (International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians) and ROPA (Regional Orchestra Players Association). The primary differences between them are ROPA orchestras have fewer salaried musicians, their organizations have annual budgets under $6,000,000, and their seasons typically last less than 39 weeks.

In addition to the conferences, each greater metropolitan area is managed under the auspices of the local chapter of the AFM. For example, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a member of ICSOM, a conference of the AFM, and represented by AFM local 40-543. This triad relationship is directed primarily by the individual orchestra musicians who won the legal right to self representation in 1962. As such, Local or National AFM officers can not force musicians to accept the terms of a collective bargaining agreement and the musicians may also retain anyone they please to represent them in negotiations.

In addition to the AFM, there is one other union which represents orchestra musicians; The International Guild of Symphony, Opera and Ballet Musicians (IGSOBM, a.k.a. “The Guild”). IGSOBM represents a much smaller portion of orchestra musicians as compared to the AFM, but they have been successfully representing their members for twenty years. Member organizations include the musicians of the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Both unions provide essentially the same direct service to their members, collective representation, which provides the players with a uniform contract covering wages, benefits, rehearsals, recordings, and working conditions for all musicians (with occasional exceptions). Furthermore, since they are both recognized by the National Labor Relations Board, the unions provide a structure for musicians to file grievances against management for infringement of the master collective bargaining agreement.

All of this ensures that the players are treated like professional artists as opposed to an easily replaced “human resource”. To aid in this task, the musicians elect a small committee of their peers to act as the liaison between themselves and management. They also elect an individual member to serve as the union steward whose job it is to make certain that all aspects of the contract are being properly enforced and that management is not compelling musicians to work outside the limits of the contract. This steward can also serves as a liaison between musicians and management regarding individual infractions of the contract, disciplinary issues, and complaints against individual managers or staff members.

Most local chapters of the AFM are organized much like a symphony board. They have a President, Vice President, secretary, treasurer, and a governing board. In some cases, orchestra musicians serve in these positions.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Good: Before union representation, orchestra musicians were traded like cattle and subject to degrading abuse from tyrant music directors. They could be fired for simply having a bad playing day and were paid far less than their actual value. Union representation gave players the ability to feel secure in their positions and settle down in the community. It also provided a way for the musicians to participate when selecting new members of the ensemble, before that time the music director usually appointed a player of their choosing. Currently, the union provides an optional retirement fund for players and access to affordable instrument and disability insurance. They make resource materials and standard performance contracts available to musicians and insure that any recordings are made expressly with musician approval. They also ensure that royalties from recordings are properly distributed to each musician.

Bad: Like many unions the AFM has grown so large that it can easily be seen as working for its own interest as opposed to the interest of individual musicians. With the exceptions of Right-To-Work states, all orchestra musicians are required to join the union and pay union dues. If the union acts in a fashion that they do not approve of or they feel they are not receiving adequate representation, there is little recourse outside of litigation since they are always the minority membership within their representing Local. The union can be very slow to adapt to their orchestral members changing needs and the typical collective bargaining agreement usually creates protective language after the fact. Insight into avoiding potential problems and installing them in the collective bargaining agreements before problems occur is not standard practice.

Ugly: When the orchestra gets into trouble as an organization (non-artistic reasons), the union can be quick to beat the war drums. In many cases, the union should know these troubles are approaching and do more to prevent the problem rather than having to deal with it during a harsher financial climate. They are late in going to the press to present their side of the issues which, in many cases, makes the highly trained, highly educated, very talented musicians look more like inexperienced “labor” rather than the institutional stakeholders they are. Additionally, they often take an adversarial approach to management whether it is justified or not, therefore turning a situation sour without justifiable cause.

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