Musicians Institute Instructors Sign First Union Contract
By DARRELL SATZMAN
Staff Reporter
Ending one acrimonious battle and possibly setting the stage for another, instructors at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, represented by the American Federation of Musicians, have signed their first one-year labor agreement.
Though the deal is a victory of sorts for the federation, which has seen membership fall in recent years, union officials and a representative of the 100 or so Musicians Institute teachers affected by the contract acknowledged they are dissatisfied with the pact. But the time had come, after nearly 18 months of “excruciating” negotiations, to make a deal.
“The first contract is always the hardest,” said Hal Espinosa, president of the professional musician’s Local 47 in Hollywood. “Sometimes when you’re in a fistfight, you fight and fight until you’re both wiped out. At that point you say, ‘Let’s shake hands and come back next year and get into it again.'”
Under terms of the deal, instructors at the Musicians Institute were able to increase their job security, obtain paid time off and gain protection from pay cuts. They failed to get the raises and benefit increases they wanted.
As working musicians, most of the instructors were already members of the federation, but they needed a vote to form a union shop and negotiate the contract.
About 70 percent of the instructors at the school, which charges $14,000 per year for training in guitar, bass, drums and other musical instruments, voted to join the union last year after a former administrator recommended changes that would make all but a handful of teachers independent contractors.
Joe Elliott, a former instructor who is currently vice president of education at the Musicians Institute, said the plan was intended to address unusual circumstances at the school, where teachers often leave for weeks at a time to play professional gigs.
“The effort to convert instructors to independent contractors was to allow them the freedom to come and go without being encumbered by the complications of being an employee,” Elliott said. “It was misunderstood. From my perspective, I didn’t see it as a threat.”
But John Humphrey, a studio musician who has taught at the Musicians Institute for 10 years, said the move to independent contractor status was part of a plan by the Musicians Institute to cut teacher salaries
“We didn’t mind becoming independent contractors, but we were seeking a raise. And when we calculated the numbers, it looked like it was going to be a 15 percent hit,” Humphrey said. As it now stands, the teachers remain employees.
Founded in 1976, the Musicians Institute reached its peak enrollment of 1,300 students during the heavy metal craze of the late 1980s. But enrollment has dipped to as low as 500 and currently stands at about 600, Elliott said.
Under the terms of the new contract, the minimum hourly pay for instructors is $12. Instructors at the school currently earn between $12 and $30 per hour, said Humphrey.
That compares to a minimum hourly wage of $30 and a maximum of $50 at the Los Angeles Music Academy in Pasadena, said Tom Aylesbury, the academy’s executive director. “Obviously, they were treating the instructors very badly,” said Aylesbury, whose school is not unionized.
Elliott denied that instructors have been treated badly, pointing out that the school has done its best to avoid layoffs. “There’s been some declining hours, but people have kept their jobs, despite some hard times,” he said.
