AFM rallies support at NYC rally as livestreaming deal talks begin

On a crowded stretch of Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon, it felt like a throwback to the summer of 2023. A brass band played Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up” on the sidewalk as pedestrians filed past, a man with a bullhorn led a chorus of chants, and protesters held up signs with messages to corporate executives.

But this wasn’t a strike picket. 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 begin a new round of contract talks on the union’s videotape contract, which covers players on live and taped television shows like Saturday Night Live AND Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

About an hour before the negotiations, musicians and union representatives from Los Angeles, Nashville and New York made their demands clear: higher wages, higher reciprocal royalty benefits, more comprehensive health care and limits on the use of artificial intelligence as a replacement for entertainment workers — issues that also prompted marathon strikes by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA last year.

Wearing blue “Musicians United” T-shirts, they gathered about a block from NBCUniversal’s headquarters in Rockefeller Center, the site of a daily Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA picket a year ago. They handed out flyers to curious passersby and set up a demonstration with live music courtesy of the Five Boroughs Band, whose ranks swelled as the rally progressed.

Shawn Pelton, longtime drummer and percussionist SNL band playing snare drums. Dave Pomeroy, a Nashville recording and session musician and AFM representative, showed up with an acoustic bass guitar and later performed a song he had written for the occasion.

“It’s called ‘What Unions Did For You,’” Pomeroy said. “You’re free to sing along.”

What did the demonstrators do?

The musicians were joined by leaders and members of SAG-AFTRA and the WGA, whose overlapping strikes in 2023 lasted months and shut down much of U.S. film and TV production. Just after actors and writers finally came to terms with studios and production companies, the 70,000-member AFM signed its own three-year contract renewal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in April.

The deal involves actors and composers working on scripts for both the big and small screens. Negotiations dragged on for months, despite the threat of a union strike hanging over them, but ultimately there was no need to stop work.

A subset of the 6,000 musicians covered by the Live TV and Video agreement negotiate directly with television networks, including NBC, CBS and ABC. The AFM has not approved a strike for them.

“We hope we can negotiate a fair contract,” an AFM spokesperson told Deadline.

Some musicians at the rally said they feel even more vulnerable to AI attacks than their fellow actors and composers, having lost ground for decades to synthesizers, music-generating software and pre-recorded tracks in live performances.

“We’ve already been replaced,” said one AFM veteran, who asked not to be named. “This is the (final) straw.”

Tino Gagliardi, the president and chief negotiator of the AFM, told demonstrators that his members were “very late on many issues.” But that would be the end of it, he vowed.

“I’m going to go into this room and try to work out an agreement that’s progressive enough that we can at least catch up with what we should have done five years ago,” Gagliardi said. “Let’s get started, ladies and gentlemen.”

Union musicians who provided live music and morale at WGA and SAG-AFTRA picket lines were met with expressions of solidarity Wednesday by some of the most prominent strike leaders on the East Coast last year.

“You have a tough fight ahead of you,” said Rebecca Damon, SAG-AFTRA’s director of labor policy and executive director of the New York Local. “But today, as SAG-AFTRA… we promise to be there for you whenever you need us.”

Among the crowd was AFM and SAG-AFTRA member Janice Pendarvis, one of the backing vocalists featured in the acclaimed 2013 documentary. 20 Feet from Fameand the musical leader of the memorable picket outside NBCUniversal in August 2023, where singers performed the classic protest anthem “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.”

Pendarvis didn’t sing Wednesday, but she sounded ready if asked. “This is my community, these are my people, and I’ll do anything for them,” she said.