An Independent Journal for Members of the
American Federation of Musicians
An Independent Journal for Members of the
American Federation of Musicians
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This site is neither owned, nor (God forbid) endorsed, by the AFM Completely
unnecessary explanation of the above statement.
Editor's Note: UnionMuse
is neither fish, flesh nor web log. However, in its current undisciplined
form it tends to resemble the last of these. This was not entirely
deliberate, but it is certainly not the worst way to present the material. About Error Messages
Link page coming soon. For now, we'll place good ones here as we get a chance. Here's an essential one: The Association for Union Democracy
Editor: Lou Barranti Updated Contact Information (February 2005) On account of all the spam, we have removed the e-mail links and replaced them with spelled out e-mail addresses. No doubt you've seen this sort of thing on other sites before: just replace the red "at" with the symbol "@" (no quotation marks, of course) and the red "dot" with a "." - no spaces, please, - and your missive should be on its way to our new editorial offices. Contact UnionMuse: editor at unionmuse dot com Alternate UnionMuse e-mail
address: All content ©2003, UnionMuse |
Monday, June 16, 2003 "What did you do before you were a musician?" (First in a series.) Theresa Gafford
According to the AFM membership database, Gafford joined Local 257, Nashville, Tennessee, on January 1, 1995. She is listed as “VOC,” presumably meaning “vocalist." On April 5, 1995, also according to the AFM database, Gafford became a member of the DC Local, where she also is listed as a vocalist. No one we know has ever heard Gafford perform, or heard of her performing. (Two sources say she is not a musician at all.) But back to her rise to stardom: In 1995, Local 150, Branson, Missouri, was in trouble (a whole other story for another time). On June 23 of that year, the International Executive Board voted to place the local in trusteeship: “Executive Officer Tom Bailey distributed information relative to the current situation in Branson. After further consideration, a motion was made and carried to place Local 150, Springfield-Branson, Missouri, in trusteeship, in accordance with Article 7, Sections 8(a), 3 and 4, of AFM Bylaws, effective immediately upon the appointment of a trustee.” (June 1995 IEB Minutes) But who would it be? Obviously such a position, with the task of rescuing a failed local, ought to be undertaken by an experienced officer or knowledgeable member. So who did they find? Well, of course... They appointed Theresa Gafford, a union member for just over half a year. From the minutes of the meeting: “The Board confirmed its votes via mail/phone/fax poll on the following requests: ...(G) Approval of a starting salary of $556.50 per week for Teresa Gafford, newly-appointed Trustee of Local 150, Springfield-Branson, Missouri. Bailey and Hair opposed." (September 30, 1995, IEB minutes) “Teresa Gafford, newly appointed Trustee of Local 150, Springfield-Branson, Missouri, in Las Vegas at her own expense, was welcomed to address the Board regarding her initial visit to the Local on September 19, 1995. She answered numerous questions posed by the Board and was thanked and excused.” “Executive Officer Shea addressed the matter of AFM Trustee salaries. President Young explained that he proposed a higher starting salary for the Branson Trustee since theTrustee would otherwise be taking a salary cut from her current salary. After further discussion, a motion was made and carried to establish a uniform Trustee salary of $556.50 for all Trustees, effective October 9, 1995.” (October 3, 1995 IEB minutes) So here is a brand new AFM member who walks in off the street, don’t know nobody (except Tom Lee), don’t play nothin’ and she gets a gig running a Local that’s in terrible shape. Plus, they increase the salary for trustees because of her. That’s nice. According to one of our correspondents: “Branson was a joke. Theresa Gafford was assigned when Steve Young and Tom Lee were still talking, as a favor. Her qualifications seemed to be that she likes to listen to country music. With no background in organizing she did what she knew . . . office work and public relations.” And how did she do? Though evidence suggests they were wrong, the IEB thought she did so well that they took the Local out of trusteeship. And how did THAT work out? Here is an excerpt from the minutes of a special meeting of the IEB, held March 13, 1999: “President Young reported to the Board that due to financial mismanagement he removed Steve Call, President of Local 150, Springfield-Branson, Missouri, from office.” Financial “mismanagement”? How about “embezzlement”? Call took over $18,000 and eventually was convicted and sentenced to five years probation, 250 hours of community service and ordered to make full restitution to the Union. “President Young requested the Board place Local 150 in trusteeship. After lengthy discussion, a motion was made and carried to hold over this discussion until the next meeting of the Board.” ...at which meeting, on April 3, 1999: “A motion was made and carried to revoke the charter of Local 150 under the provisions of Article 7, Section 1 of AFM Bylaws, effective immediately, and to assign its jurisdiction to Local 257, Nashville, Tennessee.” According to public records -- reports of the U.S. Department of Labor and the United States Attorney’s Office -- as distilled by the National Legal and Policy Center (Why do we have to go to unfriendly-to-labor organizations to get information on internal union crapola?): “The local was first placed in trusteeship by the int'l union due to financial difficulties in 1995. Then as the the trusteeship was ending, int'l trustee Theresa Gafford made a poor judgment and groomed Call to run the local. He was elected president and secretary-treasurer in Apr. 1997.” (Union Corruption Update May 13, 2002 -- Vol. 5, Issue 10) Poor judgment? Well, we ALL make mistakes. In 1999, Tom Lee was first appointed, then elected, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFM. The appointment was rumored to have been intended for another officer, but Lee apparently lobbied hard and got the gig. UnionMuse does not yet have the complete story on the D.C. Local for the years since then, but (in their last election) Theresa Gafford ran for local office and somehow was elected Secretary-Treasurer. Her opponent was Alfonso Pollard, then the AFM’s Legislative Director, and a man with considerably more union -- and music business -- experience. Immediately after the election, Tom Lee fired Pollard. Recall that the D.C. Secretary-Treasurer position was formerly held by Tom Lee. A reliable and respected correspondent of ours, not one prone to rumor mongering or character assassination suggests this question: Is Gafford, not exactly the brains of the outfit, just holding the spot open in case Tom doesn’t manage to be re-elected AFM President? Or is Tom Lee running the Local by remote control? We don’t know. Both theories seem rather outrageous. But this whole thing is so strange that anything is possible. We will await further developments (without holding our breath). Meanwhile, the only remaining question is: Can she sing? Thursday, June 12, 2003 AFM in the News There are so many specialty publications for musicians that, without your help, we can't keep up with as many of them as we would like. Therefore, we were pleased to find this magazine cover in our mailbox this morning, sent by one of our regular readers. Apparently the extensive public relations efforts of the AFM are finally paying off. The first ten readers who can name the band this musician plays with (as an independent contractor, of course) will receive a half dozen free* guitar picks (without the AFM Logo). *$4.95 cdn., postage & handling.
Tuesday, June 10, 2003 Coming soon (or nearly soon): I. What did you do before you were a musician? First AFM member to be featured: Theresa Gafford (Secretary-Treasurer of Local 161-710).
II. If you're thinking of living in New York... Say you were the AFM President, and you made a hundred thousand dollars a year (plus expenses), where would YOU find a place to call home? Saturday, June 7, 2003 A brief diversion... "In its all-out war against file swapping, the recording industry has done itself a lot of damage. It has alienated its ideal audience — young people who live and breathe music — by being way behind the technological curve and by repeatedly sounding as if its main job was law enforcement rather than selling music."
By some small coincidence, also seen in today's 'Times' (online edition)...
Jeff Danziger Click here for entire cartoon. (From the Jeff Danziger website: www.danzigercartoons.com ) Sunday, May 25, 2003 Direct from (your) Lost Wages:
Friday, May 16, 2003 Anybody seen the AFM's Assistant Treasurer? Rosalia Aquino's name, and the Assistant Treasurer position with ANYBODY's name attached to it, have gone missing from the AFM's staff listing on afm.org. For those who don't know it, the A.T. is the person with day to day responsibility for the finances of the union. Secretary-Treasurer Florence Nelson's recent report on the budget (see our analysis) shows that she has no grasp of these things (or does, but spins a tale to hide the real story). So WHO is taking care of business?
Tuesday, May 6, 2003 I.M. Ad Update Following is the text of the letter sent to the UnionMuse editor by Florence Nelson, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFM, explaining her rejection, as International Musician publisher, of the ad we submitted for the May Issue of the I. M. Due to time constraints, we are publishing this without comment, though, as the reader might guess, we will add same as soon as we are able to do so.
Monday, May 5, 2003 Paving the road to hell... Last Monday's announcement
was clearly off the mark. In future we will attempt to restrain our optimism regarding available internet connection and work time when traveling. With our editor now installed in a lovely location on the EAST side, not the west, our commentaries will resume as quickly as possible. As a warm up exercise, the two items immediately below have been updated or modified. Showing
exemplary inconsistency, The April issue of the International Musician carried a full page advertisement for what seems to be a non-signatory record label. The paper has in the past featured ads for Carnival Cruise Lines, with which the AFM does not have any Collective Bargaining Agreement. For years, the paper has refused to carry ads for the Seattle Symphony because it has an agreement with a competing union. Recently, the I.M.'s publisher (Florence Nelson) rejected, without explanation, a 1/6 page ad submitted for the May issue by UnionMuse, a member run journal. Probably they just didn't need the money. [UPDATE: One week after the ad was rejected (and following three inquiries sent to the International Musician and three separate queries to the Secretary-Treasurer, we received a response (which crossed in the mail with the third query). We will have more information, plus the text of the letter, posted shortly.] (Legal briefs to follow.) Original notice April 20, 2003; Updated May 5 Moved from "Home" Page November 18, 2003 |
