Solidarity

Learning from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA

Still from Eisenstein’s Strike, 1925

Ever since the WGA (Writers Guild of America) went on strike last May, followed by SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), I have been asked by friends why musicians aren’t striking, too. So many of the issues that animate this action in Hollywood apply to our situation in music: the lack of income for creators from streaming, the unregulated introduction of AI, the loss of jobs to increasingly consolidated corporate strategies minimizing creative labor.

The answer is that we can’t strike. Legally, we can’t.

Independent musicians can’t even talk about coordinated collective action against our corporate overlords - like organizing a consumer boycott, or withholding our work in some strategic manner. If we did, we could be sued under – get this – antitrust laws. All we punk rockers, self-employed, are classified as independent contractors. So if we get together and coordinate action against one of our “customers” – like Spotify, or Apple, or Amazon, or Google – we could be held liable for collusion and unfair business practices.

Obviously, unlike our comrade writers and actors in Hollywood, independent musicians do not have an existing union to collectively bargain with these corporations that control so much about our income and careers. But it goes even further: we cannot legally form a union.

In fact, the new musicians’ advocacy group I have been helping build ever since lockdown in early 2020 – the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers – has had to change its formal name to United Musicians and Allied Workers. Same acronym (UMAW). But we discovered we couldn’t even open a bank account with the word “union” in our name, because we are not a union and cannot, under current law, become one.

Which means the law has to change. And it well might.

The Protect Working Musicians Act (PWMA) was introduced last congress by Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida, and with his retirement has now been reintroduced by Rep. Deborah Ross of North Carolina, adding new terms regarding AI. The goal of the bill is to exempt musicians from antitrust laws in negotiations with streaming platforms and generative AI companies. It would be a crucial step in correcting the gross imbalance of power between some of the richest corporations on the planet and a bunch of gigging musicians.

Of course there need be a lot more steps to correct that imbalance. Some we can do now – UMAW is taking all of them our group can manage (we have initiated or joined campaigns to eliminate merch cuts from venues, to raise pay for bands at SXSW, to break up Ticketmaster/Live Nation, to restrict corporations from using AI to create works under copyright, and to regulate streaming). But others, like the powerfully effective strikes we are witnessing from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, are far removed from current possibilities for independent musicians.

It makes me wonder, if Hollywood workers hadn’t unionized during the early part of the 20^th century, when labor movements were ascendant… could they now?

I don’t think so. So many of the artists represented by these unions would be classified as independent contractors, caught behind the same web of pro-corporate, anti-labor laws as we are in music.

Nevertheless, the strikes we are witnessing are inspiring for their solidarity, their savvy understanding of the issues for creative workers in the current technological environment, and not least their successes. The WGA now seems to have largely won its demands, and there’s hope that SAG-AFTRA will soon.

Even though musicians can’t imitate these strikes as a tactic, we can take on the solidarity and savviness that have made them so powerful. Start practicing: tell your representative to support the Protect Working Musicians Act. Join UMAW, or another musician advocacy group. We need to work together and develop the skills and tools of a union, even if we can’t legally form one – yet.

Listening to: Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Chapter Five: In the Garden…

Cooking: Succotash