American Federation Of Musicians Drums Up Support For The “Hard Fight Ahead” At NYC Rally As Live-TV Contract Talks Begin
deadline.comIt felt like a flashback to the summer of 2023 along a crowded stretch of Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon.
A brass band played Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up” on the sidewalk as pedestrians streamed by, a man with a bullhorn led unison chants, and demonstrators held up picket signs with messages aimed at company bosses.
This wasn’t a strike picket, though. Members of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) gathered on the doorstep of the old McGraw-Hill Building to kick off a new round of contract talks on the union’s TV Videotape Agreement, which covers the players on live and taped television programs such as Saturday Night Live and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
About an hour before negotiations, musicians and union representatives from Los Angeles, Nashville and New York made their demands clear outside: better pay, higher residuals, more comprehensive health care and limits on the use of artificial intelligence as a replacement for entertainment workers — issues that also drove last year’s marathon walkouts by WGA and SAG-AFTRA.
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