Leonard DiCosimo for AFM International Executive Board
Candidate Statement
Lifting my voice at The City Club of Cleveland.
As an AFM International Executive Board member, I will work to:
- Establish education programs for local officers to develop, maintain and increase alternative revenue streams for their unions with for-profit and non-profit subsidiaries. Local 4 payroll department and subsidiaries net over $1 million annually in wages and benefits for our freelance musicians.
- Grant financial assistance to locals who do not have the resources to fully engage officers and delegates in a meaningful fashion. Support Resolution 21 to create an annual budget to offer assistance to AFM Locals in sending a Delegate to the annual AFM conference in which they are affiliated.
- Increase awareness of, and protection for, the diversity in our membership, and demonstrate a deeper commitment to fully addressing the unique circumstances found in a multi-cultural and geographical membership. Each local in Canadian, French-Canadian and Quebec communities, the U.S. Southwest, Puerto Rico, the Atlantic Seaboard, Texas, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, California, Southeastern United States and Hawaii have their own individual circumstances regarding the digital media, freelance, recording, symphonic and theatre sectors in their jurisdiction.
- Provide support to locals without collective bargaining. Freelance musicians are the majority of our membership. My definition of a freelance musician is someone who is not covered under a 52-week collective bargaining agreement.
- Reinforce and nurture communication between the AFM and its locals. It is poor form when local officers learn from secondary sources that longtime federation colleagues are no longer employed. A timely notification to local officers of these circumstances is an appropriate and reasonable expectation.
- Support prioritization of federation resources for the negotiation of our media agreements and continue to strengthen the relationships between the federation and player conference leadership to advance this purpose.
