American Federation of Musicians history

In 1897, the union became international when the Montreal Musicians Protective Union and Toronto Orchestral Association joined.

By 1900, the union changed its name to the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada and was actively organizing on both sides of the border.

By 1905, an official position on the International Executive Board was created to provide Canadian representation at the federation level.

A 1908 appropriations bill banned armed-services musicians (exempting Marines) from competing with civilians.

In 1918, two important legislative measures, Prohibition and a 20% cabaret tax to support the war effort, negatively impacted many musicians.

In 1920, the AFM opened local 767 in Los Angeles along Central Avenue.

In 1927, the first "talkie" motion picture was released and within two years, 20,000 musicians lost their jobs performing in theater pits for silent films.

The AFM founded the Music Defense League in 1930 to gain public support against canned music in movie theaters.

The 1937 AFM convention mandated Weber to fight against the use of recorded music on radio.

In 1938, film companies signed their first contract with AFM at a time when musicians were losing income as phonograph records replaced radio orchestras and jukeboxes competed with live music in nightclubs.

Labor leader James Petrillo took command of the AFM in 1940.

Among the most significant AFM actions was the 1942–44 musicians' strike (sometimes called the "Petrillo ban"), orchestrated to pressure record companies to agree to a royalty system more beneficial to the musicians.

In 1946, Congress passed an act known as "the anti-Petrillo Act" that made it a criminal offense for a union to use coercion to win observance of its rules by radio stations.

Petrillo organized a second recording ban from January 1 to December 14, 1948 in response to the Taft–Hartley Act.

In 1951, lobbying efforts against the cabaret tax paid off when nonprofit organizations, including symphony orchestras, were exempted.

While his 1955 negotiations had led to increased payments into the funds, the lack of a scale increase angered some full-time recording musicians.

The Parliament of Canada used the death duties of two Canadian millionaire estates to establish the Canada Council for the Arts in 1957.

Musicians were promised a voice at the next round of meetings in 1958, but talks broke down and a strike was called.

The Musicians Guild of America was defeated in a 1960 representation election and the AFM regained bargaining rights for motion-picture studios.