Mr. MCCANN. You don't know about that? Mr. FISCHER. No, sir. Mr. MCCANN. Haven't you read your constitution and bylaws? Mr. MCCANN. Yes. Mr. FISCHER. Parts of it. Mr. MCCANN. Parts of it? Mr. FISCHER. Yes, sir. Mr. MCCANN. Do you know about the sections which give the complete authority to Mr. Petrillo-haven't you read those sections? Mr. FISCHER. I understand that there is a section 1 which has something to do with giving Mr. Petrillo certain authorities; yes. Mr. MCCANN. May I read that into the record. I read into the record at this time from the bylaws of the American Federation of Musicians, of 1946: ARTICLE I-DUTIES OF OFFICERS AND ORGANIZERS SECTION 1. Duties of president.-It shall be the duty of the president to preside at all meetings of the federation and executive board; sign all documents of an official character pertaining to the federation; sign all vouchers; appoint all committees, unless otherwise ordered. It shall be his duty and prerogative to exercise supervision over the affairs of the federation; to make decisions in cases where, in his opinion, an emergency exists; and to give effect to such decisions he is authorized and empowered to promulgate and issue executive orders, which shall be conclusive and binding upon all members and/or locals; any such order may by its terms (a) enforce the constitution, bylaws, standing resolutions, or other laws, resolutions or rules of the federation, or (b) may annul and set aside same or any portion thereof, except such which treat with the finances of the organization and substitute therefor other and different provisions of his own making, in which case such change shall be published in the next issue of the International Musician after its promulgation; the power so to do is hereby made absolute in the president when, in his opinion, such orders are necessary to conserve and safeguard the interests of the federation, the locals and/or members; and the said power shall in like manner extend to and include cases where existing laws are inadequate or provide no method of dealing with a situation. He shall call special sessions of the executive board when necessary; call strikes; draw upon the funds of the federation to pay the salaries of traveling members accompanying a theatrical organization when called on to strike while on the road, and for the payment, if necessary, of hotel and traveling expenses of other members who are called on strike by him during any emergency when outside of their own jurisdiction and play engagement for which no tax is collected by the federation, and for which otherwise no strike benefits are paid; draw funds in payment of all expenses occasioned by the exercise of his duties; perform such other duties as may elsewhere be provided for in the constitution, bylaws, and standing resolutions of the federation; have the casting vote of a tie, and at the end of his term of office he shall report his acts and doings to the annual convention of the federation, and upon convening of the convention he shall appoint the following committees, viz: First, credentials; second, finance; third, laws and supervisions; fourth, measures for the benefit of the federation, and such other committees as may be voted for by the convention. The president shall receive a salary ($20,000) per annum, payable monthly, and in addition thereto a contingent expense account of $3,000 per annum, for the spending of which he shall not be required to make an accounting, and when the interests of the American Federation of Musicians or any of its locals demand his leaving the jurisdiction where he resides he shall receive $5 per diem and all hotel and traveling expenses. Should such visits be occasioned by a theatrical controversy or one of national importance, the hotel and traveling expenses shall be defrayed by the federation; if occasioned by a controversy of local complexion other than theatrical, the local requesting his presence shall bear the hotel and traveling expenses, but the per diem allowance shall be borne by the federation; provided that all expense of the president caused by travel between his office in New York and Chicago shall be paid by the federation. He shall have authority to purchase, from the funds of the federation, an automobile for his own use, the upkeep of said automobile, including garage rent, insurance, gas, oil, and all necessary repairs, together with such other expenses as may be incurred in the way of legal services, and/or damages. as the result of accidents, to be borne by the federation; he shall be entitled to the services of a chauffeur, whose salary shall be determined by the executive board of the federation and paid for out of the funds of the federation; and he shall have authority to trade in said automobile whenever, in his judgment, a trade-in is advisable. He shall represent the American Federation of Musicians at the convention of the American Federation of Labor as one of its delegates. In addition to delegating State representatives to visit jurisdictions to perform such duties as provided for by the laws of the federation, the president shall be authorized to delegate any executive officer to act on his behalf or to call him to his assistance whenever he deems it expedient, and said member shall receive for his services, should he be obliged to leave the jurisdiction wherein he resides, $15 per diem and all hotel and traveling expenses, with the exception of the secretary and financial secretary-treasurer, who, in addition to all hotel and traveling expenses, shall receive $5 per diem. The president of the American Federation of Musicians shall not be eligible for election as delegate from any local. He shall exercise all the prerogatives of a presiding officer, including the right to voice on the floor of the convention on all questions, but not to vote thereon except as otherwise provided for in this section. The president of the federation may appoint assistants at salaries of $15,000 for the first assistant, $10,000 for the second and third assistants, and $8,000 for the fourth assistant, but no assistant to the president shall be a member of the executive committee. Each assistant shall receive a per diem allowance of $5 per day when out of town. The mode of payment of said salaries shall be determined by the international executive board of the American Federation of Musicians. The title of each such appointee shall be "assistant to the president." The appointees must be members of the federation. Their duties shall be to assist in the discharge of all lawful business in such measure or manner as the president of the federation may direct. In addition to the appointing of assistants, the president shall employ stenographers, typists, and such clerical or other assistance as, in his discretion, is necessary. The president's office shall be maintained in New York City and Chicago, Ill. The president or the executive board of the federation may suspend or remove from office any officer of any local found by such president or the executive board to be guilty of neglect of duty, interference with or violation of any of the provisions of the constitution, bylaws, standing resolutions, orders or directions of the convention, the president, or the executive board of the federation, or of any of the purposes, objects, or affairs of the federation. In case of the removal of any such local officer, the vacancy thereby created shall be filled by the remaining local officers until a successor to such removed officer is appointed or elected in accordance with the bylaws, rules, or regulations governing such local. Have you anything else to say? Mr. FISCHER. Yes. Mr. MCCANN. Proceed. Mr. FISCHER. In regard to the delayed broadcasts Mr. Weiss was speaking about, the federation does allow delayed broadcasts, providing they are legitimate delayed broadcasts within 7 days. For example, there are programs that have live rebroadcasts-the sponsor desires-instead of that program being broadcast at 4: 30 in the afternoon, when the original show goes on, and goes east, they would rather have it go on at 8:30 at night for the west coast. I believe, I am not sure, but I believe that the networks get an additional fee for that time at night. The reason, I believe, that the federation insists on a payment of the transcription fee, when it broadcasts at night, is for the fact that it is an additional service, and it would actually-the musicians who are doing a live broadcast now, if they could do it by transcription, then naturally they wouldn't have the musicians work if they could do it gratis. Do I make myself clear? Mr. MCCANN. No, sir; you don't. I wish you would do it over again. Mr. FISCHER. All right. Mr. MCCANN. I don't understand it. Mr. FISCHER. Right now there is a Summerville band concert that goes over NBC. They play a program in the afternoon at 4:30 and then they do a live program at night for the west coast. The musicians get the transcontinental fee, plus the live repeat fee or delayed broadcast fee. Now, if the network wanted to, they could make a transcription of that without any charge. In other words, they would avoid making a payment-they would do away with the live music on that program. Mr. MCCANN. Yes; I understand that. The point that I understood here was that there is an agreement, let us say, between WOR, or whatever the Mutual station is in Chicago, or in Los Angeles, that for this broadcast throughout Mutual Mr. FISCHER. Correct. Mr. MCCANN. The price will be so much for the musicians to make this broadcast. Now, there is a further agreement that in the event that XYZ here has another program listed at that time and can't accept the chain broadcast, it may record and use that at a time during the day acceptable to it, without throwing out its whole program; is that correct? Mr. FISCHER. That is correct. Mr. McCANN. If Station BCD here wants to do the same thing, it may do it. Mr. FISCHER. Correct. Mr. MCCANN. And over at ABC, they can do it. Mr. FISCHER. That is right. Mr. MCCANN. Now, suppose that you have these three stations that can be serviced at exactly the same hour by a repeat, why should there by a $12,000 charge when, instead of each one of them recording, it is recorded once for all of them? Can you explain that to me? Mr. FISCHER. That is a question I can't answer, but I do know that the delayed broadcast is allowed and the other networks are doing it. As a matter of fact, I think Mutual is doing it right now without any charge, and they were doing it before without any charge, as a delayed broadcast. Mr. MCCANN. Have you anything else to say? Mr. FISCHER. Mr. Weiss stated that in regard to the number of men at Station KHJ we have never had any arguments or any discussions about the number of men. As a matter of fact, from 1943 until this date Mutual or KHJ employed more men. At one time they had 38 men when we only asked for 19. And I think to this day, right now, they have more men at Mutual than we asked for. Mr. MCCANN. Anything else? Mr. FISCHER. And regarding FM broadcasts, musicians are allowed to broadcast over FM at the present time. I just received a letter from the federation the other day asking me how many FM stations have music. Mr. MCCANN. When did you get that letter? Mr. FISCHER. I think I got it about 2 weeks ago, asking me how many FM stations have music. And we have no FM stations that have music, to my knowledge. Mr. MCCANN. So you replied none. Mr. FISCHER. That is correct. Mr. MCCANN. Mr. Petrillo told us at the Washington hearing, which is something over a month ago, he had all the power in his own hands to determine when they could have it. Mr. FISCHER. I believe and I have been instructed-I was not notified by the national office that at any time they want music for FMif an FM station wants music I can quote our local scale for FM. Mr. MCCANN. You got that 2 weeks ago? Mr. FISCHER. No; sometime ago. Mr. MCCANN. How long ago? Mr. FISCHER. Just playing on an FM station. I don't mean Mr. MCCANN. In other words, is there any FM station in this area that has 100,000 receiving sets? Mr. FISCHER. That I don't know. Mr. MCCANN. Any that have 20,000? Any that have 10,000? Mr. MCCANN. As a matter of fact, you know they don't have any large group of listeners. Mr. FISCHER. I know I had a call from a station over in Pasadena, a new station, the other day. They asked me, "What is the rate for an organist?" I told them it was the local rate. Mr. MCCANN. The same rate you charge an AM station that have a thousand times more listeners? Mr. FISCHER. That is correct. I don't think $10.35 for an organist, playing alone for a half hour, on a program, is too exorbitant. Mr. MCCANN. Anything else? We want to give you an ample opportunity to answer Mr. Weiss in every particular you can. Mr. FISCHER. As far as television is concerned, Mr. Lunsberg, of Paramount Studios, has called me time and time for clearance for certain programs. He called me last Christmas. I referred him to the national office. He wanted to broadcast a program that was held at one of the churches and I am sure-I know the federation cleared it. I know there were other public-service programs cleared to be broadcast over television. Mr. MCCANN. Can you tell me this: Who gave James Caesar Petrillo his power? Mr. FISCHER. Well, I don't think that James Caesar Petrillo has so much power. Mr. MCCANN. You don't think so? Mr. FISCHER. I don't think so. Mr. MCCANN. You heard me read that, didn't you? Mr. FISCHER. I believe that every corporation also has somebody at the head of it—that during the interim of board meetings, the president or somebody has a right to do certain things. Mr. MCCANN. Mr. Fischer, I would refer you to any corporation lawyer in the world and he will tell you no officer of a corporation possesses one-hundredth of the power that James Caesar Petrillo has in your American Federation of Musicians. They can't set aside bylaws and rules and regulations and constitutions. Mr. FISCHER. I know as far as our contract is concerned that constitution-I know Mr. Petrillo's word, and as far as the contract is concerned, I don't think we have ever violated one portion of the contract. I am sure that Mr. Weiss couldn't say we have. Mr. MCCANN. Mr. Fischer, we have heard some very good reports in that respect, and we want to give you credit. Mr. FISCHER. I thank you very much for allowing me to come up on the stand. Mr. MCCANN. I don't want to say one word-and I know the chairman doesn't that is untrue, that doesn't represent 100 percent of truth in regard to Mr. Petrillo. He is a very likeable fellow. We don't want to say one word that is not true. We have heard some very excellent reports about the integrity of Mr. Petrillo in his contractual relations. If he gives his word, he tries to keep it. And that if there have been any, we haven't run into any single contract where people have said Mr. Petrillo's word wasn't good when he gave it. Have you anything else to say? Mr. FISCHER. No, sir. Mr. MCCANN. Mr. Weiss, do you care to answer anything Mr. Fischer said? Mr. WEISS. Well, the only point that Mr. Fischer contradicted me on, which I think the record ought to show, was when he said he doesn't recall any instance where they ever violated their contract. It is inherent that the freedom to use remote broadcasts origination is one of the considerations of the contract. Mr. FISCHER. That is true. Mr. WEISS. When you called me up at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and told me you had been instructed by Mr. Petrillo to "yank" our controls-our remotes-obviously, you are repudiating a contract. That is one of the considerations. Don't you agree with that? Mr. FISCHER. In the contract it definitely states that that contract is subject to the constitution and bylaws of the American Federation of Musicians. Mr. WEISS. We are getting right back again. Mr. FISCHER. And when I get instructions to notify you, I have to do so. Mr. WEISS. I appreciate that. I appreciate your position. I think I made that clear in my testimony. But you said you didn't recall a single instance where you ever violated a contract. I maintain when you "yank," regardless of whose instructions you do it on-I appreciate you didn't initiate that when you "yank" out one of the considerations of the contract, you have violated and repudiated a contract made in good faith. Mr. MCCANN. I think that must go down in the record, Mr. Weiss, as an exception in the dealings of the union. I think that is a legitimate exception. I think you will agree to that, Mr. Chairman, where they have a contract with an organization and notify that organization right off that no musicians are to play that night, that is an exception to good faith in a contract, and I had lost sight of that in my statement. Mr. KEARNS. I have no further questions. |