{"id":2,"date":"2014-01-31T21:45:57","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T21:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fcmestmonsyndicat.ca\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2023-09-06T20:02:31","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T20:02:31","slug":"sample-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cfmismyunion.ca\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

January 31, 2014<\/b><\/p>\n

To the Members of La Guilde des Musiciens et Musiciennes du Qu\u00e9bec, Local 406, AFM:<\/b><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been informed by the Guild that the December General Meeting of the Guild passed a motion to conduct a referendum of the membership on whether or not to remain in the AFM.\u00a0 Though not surprised, we are deeply disappointed.\u00a0 This motion appears to be the culmination of a deliberate crafting of events over the past couple of years designed specifically to obtain this result.\u00a0 This letter will put before you facts and information that may not have been given a full airing up until now.<\/p>\n

The International Executive Board (IEB) and the Guild\u2019s elected leadership have been discussing the Local 406\u2019s unique advantages and challenges under the provincial\u00a0Status of the Artist<\/i>\u00a0for more than twenty years.\u00a0 The Guild\u2019s current leadership claims that income isn\u2019t sufficient to cover both the Federation affiliation fees and to meet the various obligations prescribed under the provincial\u00a0Status of the Artist Act<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Recognizing both the unique advantages and corresponding responsibilities that Local 406 has under\u00a0Status<\/i>, the IEB has acted to support Local 406 in many ways.\u00a0 Among those were grants of several thousand dollars to pay for French translation of union documents; a reclassification of electronic agreements negotiated under\u00a0Status<\/i>\u00a0as local agreements \u2013 thereby allowing Local 406 to retain funds that would otherwise be payable to the Federation as recording work dues; and hiring an Associate Director of Symphonic Services in Canada, who was assigned to work exclusively from Local 406\u2019s offices and help negotiate with the large number of orchestras within the province.\u00a0 In addition, my predecessor funded the legal fees for several ongoing Local 406 negotiations.<\/p>\n

Still, the Guild leadership maintained that this was insufficient and that they required further subsidy from the IEB.\u00a0 Over the past two years, the Guild leadership has presented two different proposals to the IEB:\u00a0 One was for the AFM to return $180,000 per year to the Guild, and the other, in the form of a resolution to the AFM Convention, was to discontinue its status as a Local of the AFM and instead become a \u201cnon-local affiliate,\u201d which would relieve the Guild of thousands of dollars annually in Federation per capita and work dues.<\/p>\n

Frankly, the problem with both of these proposals as put forth is that the Federation requires those funds, from every local, for its operation. \u00a0Everyone pays taxes to pay for their government; and every local pays per capita and work dues to support the Federation. \u00a0To relieve the Guild of its financial responsibilities when every other local in this Federation still pays their appropriate share would be unfair, and could start a chain reaction that would cripple our union.<\/p>\n

The Guild leadership says they need a staff of lawyers in order to discharge their obligations under\u00a0Status<\/i>. \u00a0Staff lawyers are expensive. \u00a0The Guild can\u2019t afford them, and the Federation would be hard pressed to subsidize them. \u00a0Looking for a mutual solution, last year the IEB offered to join with Local 406 in proposing to last year\u2019s AFM Convention an extra $2 in Federation per capita. \u00a0The additional $160-$180K it could have generated would have been specifically allocated to fund necessary staff through a proposed service agreement between the Guild and the Federation, allowing the AFM to provide the necessary assistance to the Guild as required under\u00a0Status<\/i>. \u00a0Let me be clear about this: \u00a0The IEB offered to put its full weight behind a proposal for\u00a0every member of this Federation<\/i>\u00a0to help Local 406, to the tune of an extra $2 per year per member.<\/p>\n

I believe that this strategy could have succeeded. \u00a0The delegates to this last convention were in a mood to properly fund programmes that would successfully propel the AFM well into the future, and I think they would have happily approved an extra $2 to help out the local of their brothers and sisters in Quebec. \u00a0Unfortunately, the delegates did not get that opportunity.\u00a0 The Guild leadership rejected the IEB\u2019s offer, and instead proposed that the Convention permit the Guild to be affiliated with the AFM without being a local, and thereby avoid paying what other locals pay to be part of the Federation. \u00a0As we had previously counselled the Guild leadership, the Convention delegates were not at all enthusiastic about that proposal.\u00a0 However, upon hearing the plight of Local 406, the Convention, rather than voting \u201cyea or nay\u201d on the resolution, placed the matter back in the hands of the IEB and instructed it to find a workable solution.<\/p>\n

The IEB took up the matter at its next meeting, which was in November of 2013.\u00a0 \u00a0Determining that the resolution to allow locals to become watered-down \u201caffiliates\u201d of the AFM was not in the best interests of the union or its members, the IEB instead proposed meeting again with the Guild leadership in late January, 2014, to again try to find a mutually-workable solution. \u00a0Knowing that emotions could run high, the IEB even suggested that we use legal counsels for Local 406 and the AFM to mediate, answer legal,\u00a0Status<\/i>\u00a0and labour code questions and ensure that when the meetings concluded, a workable agreement would have been reached.\u00a0 The Guild leadership rejected the offer to meet, and instead presided over the December meeting\u2019s motion to hold a referendum to secede from the AFM, and become a separate entity.\u00a0 We have to believe that this was the agenda all along.<\/p>\n

NOW PLEASE READ THIS \u2013 IT\u2019S IMPORTANT!<\/b><\/p>\n

Should the Guild disaffiliate from the AFM, its members would no longer be eligible for many of the services and benefits to which they are now entitled.\u00a0 These include, to name but a few:<\/p>\n