Union Calls Youtube Music
Katja Gains
With Music Moves Europe, the European Commission wants to build on and strengthen the sector's strong assets: creativity, diversity and competitiveness. The ultimate goal is to develop an integrated EU policy approach on music.
On the proposal from the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU introduced a sector-specific approach on music in the Creative Europe programme 2021-2027. The aim of this is to promote diversity, creativity and innovation in the field of music, in particular the distribution of musical repertoire in Europe and beyond. This support will also cover training actions, audience development for European repertoire, as well as data gathering and analysis of the sector.
EU actions supporting Europe's cultural and creative sectors and industries (CCSI) are cross-sectoral, and include the music sector. While this approach was underlined in the 2018 New European Agenda for Culture, the European Commission also acknowledged the impossibility of having a one-size-fits-all approach for all CCSI and announced sector-specific initiatives in the most mature cultural sectors, especially music.
Member States in the Council of the European Union decided that Music Moves Europe should become part of their policy cooperation on culture at EU level. A specific action on music has been included in the Council Work Plan for Culture 2019-22.
While the EU has no direct legislative competence in the field of culture, EU legislation directly affects the music sector in several other policy fields, e.g. related to employment, competition or the digital single market.
One example is the 2019 Copyright Directive. This addresses a key concern for the music sector by making the marketplace for copyright fairer and more transparent. In this context, the Commission has published its guidance on Article 17 of the Copyright Directive, which provides for new rules on content-sharing platforms.
The dialogue between the European Commission and representatives of the music ecosystem to identify the main challenges facing the sector started in late 2015. The AB Music Working Group report summarised the outcomes, which ultimately led to the establishment of Music Moves Europe.
Since then, further exchanges with the sector have been organised, mainly on the Preparatory Action on music (February 2018), on music diversity in Europe and the competitiveness of the industry (First Structured Dialogue - May 2019) and on the results of the Music Moves Europe call on offline-online distribution (Second Structured Dialogue - December 2019).
With the European Union Prize for popular and contemporary music, also called Music Moves Europe Awards, the European Union seeks to highlight the diversity of the European repertoire and promote emerging European talents, as a specific action within Music Moves Europe.
To implement the Preparatory action the Commission launched 7 calls for proposals and 5 calls for tenders between 2018 and 2021. Overall, these aimed to promote European diversity and talent, sectoral competitiveness, and better access to music in all its diversity.
The recommendations of these studies form the basis for future discussion at the policy level and the dialogue with the sector. On the Commission side, specific work related to music economic data and awareness raising activities is currently being carried out by the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights.
On a windy Monday in front of the headquarters of Cognizant, a contractor with YouTube Music's parent company Google (in turn a subsidiary of Alphabet), around 40 Alphabet Workers Union members were picketing. YouTube Music's Content Operations team, which provides day jobs for many Austin musicians, has been organizing for 10 months under the banner of the AWU (which has about 1,300 members nationwide) and filed for a union election in October. This is the first known strike in Google's history.
A week later, Cognizant issued a return-to-office mandate for Feb. 6, which Sam Regan, a Cognizant employee and AWU member, says is illegal: "When you file for a union election, [in] the period between filing [and the election] it's illegal for an employer to change working conditions in any significant way. This prevents them from bribing people with increased pay, etc."
The AWU filed an unfair labor practice claim with the National Labor Relations Board in response to the RTO demand, and has been "escalating actions" with petitions, an email campaign, and direct communication with Cognizant's human resources team, to no avail, resulting in "the ultimate action, which is to go on strike and withhold our labor. Our demand is to have them postpone return-to-office until after the election, so that we can collectively bargain with them in good faith."
Regan says RTO would translate into a significant pay cut for many employees, who already work extra jobs to make ends meet. "A ton of us live outside of Austin, and starting pay for my job as a music generalist is $19 an hour," says Regan. "Workers across the country are getting squeezed by cost-of-living increases and inflation, and it's especially bad in Austin."
Mariah Stevens-Ross, who's also in the local band Sailor Poon, continues, "I can't survive off of just the salary [at Cognizant], living in this city. But by going back to the office, I wouldn't be able to work my other jobs that I do to support myself. So it's just not an option." Similarly, Greg Mobley, who flew in from Florida to lend support, produces for Atlantic Records in addition to his work with YouTube Music; he says those kinds of opportunities to supplement his income would be missed if he had to return to office.
"We see this RTO order as a form of union busting, an attempt to disrupt our ability to organize, and effectively lay people off that are pro-union and potentially replace them with people that haven't been organized," says Regan. Indeed, Stevens-Ross told the Chronicle one of the options provided by management was to transfer to a different department within Cognizant, which would preclude them from voting in the union election. Sam Paulson, who came from Chicago to join the picket, says management told him his only option if he doesn't return to office is to be "voluntarily terminated."
Regan is optimistic about the team's election prospects: "We had about 85% of our department sign authorization cards. I think our showing here with the strike, growing camaraderie, very strong public support, has been pretty incredible. But this unfair labor practice that our employer is committing threatens our ability to organize. About 20% of our workforce lives out of state, but most of us here are from Austin. We all want to work from home too, but we're especially motivated to be out here to protect the livelihoods of our friends who absolutely cannot."
Actors' Equity Association is urging a boycott and protest of the upcoming non-Equity national tour of The Music Man, saying the show, produced by Big League Theatricals, is trying to pass itself off as Broadway caliber.
The staging, which is directed and choreographed by associates of Susan Stroman, who helmed the current Broadway production, appears on 2001-2002 touring schedules around the country, side by side with Equity-sanctioned tours of such shows as Proof, Kiss Me, Kate, Cinderella, South Pacific and more.
Alan Eisenberg, Equity's executive director, said in a statement: "Big League Theatricals has rejected our offers for a contract and will produce the show with non-union actors. Consequently, the public will pay 'Broadway' prices for a non-professional production, in which none of the actors has ever appeared on Broadway. To call this Music Man a 'Broadway National Tour' is a sham."
Although the advertising and promotion art for the tour is the same as the Broadway staging (and credits "direction and choreography by Stroman"), the touring-house websites examined by Playbill On-Line did not indicate the words "Broadway National Tour," but some sites do say the show is part of the "Broadway Series." Stroman agreed to the tour billing, according to a Big League spokesperson and the tour does indeed reflect her work. Liam Burke dance captain of the Broadway cast recreates Stroman's choreography and Ray Roderick, associate director of the Broadway staging, recreates Stroman's direction. In general, observers say regional audiences are not aware if the tours coming to their town are Equity or non-Equity. In many resident theatre communities, such as Chicago, "Equity" does not equal "professional." Non-union and union work are routinely reviewed as part of a rich, whole community in some U.S. cities.
The 40-week national tour of The Music Man begins is Des Moines, IA, Oct. 2. Equity is asking for a public boycott and planning protests in various cities along the tour route. Equity said its sister unions, SAG (Screen Actors' Guild) and AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) have "lent their support."
Equity points out that in recent years non-Equity tours have begun to compete with Equity tours in major markets. "While non-Equity tours are hardly unknown quantities on the road, they are usually shows likes Annie or Cats that have played major cities for several years under Equity contracts," according to the Aug. 13 Equity statement about the Music Man tour.
There is talk in the New York theatre community that Big League Theatricals will send out a non-Equity national tour of the Tony Award-winning revival of 42nd Street in the next year. Big League is the non-Equity producing arm of Dodger Theatricals, which mounted both The Music Man and 42nd Street.
"In response to needs of the touring market, Equity recently granted concessions for the upcoming national tours of Guys and Dolls and Seussical," according to an Equity statement. "Big League has rejected similar terms."
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