Janice Brooks
From:
Pleasant Gap Pa
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Posted 5 Dec 2002 6:13 pm |
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Musicians Settle For $84M With Union
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A settlement worth a reported $8.4 million has been reached between a group of aging musicians and an arm of their union that allegedly failed to provide them benefits after their careers had ended.
The settlement announced Wednesday will help musicians such as Sam Moore and the estates of Motown diva Mary Wells, Jackie Wilson and Curtis Mayfield recoup some of the money they claim was lost when record companies failed to accurately report royalty earnings and did not make required contributions to a pension fund.
"This truly is a victory for the recording artists," said Joyce Moore, whose 66-year-old husband tours every year just to pay his medical bills. "This is a great day for those of us who have been fighting this battle for the past nine years."
The suit filed in 1993 accused the pension arm of the American Federation of Television and Radios Artists, the union representing singers and musicians, of failing to protecting artists who had faded from the music industry but had reaped millions of dollars for record companies.
The suit also alleged that AFTRA fund trustees did not monitor record label contributions to artists' accounts and failed to sue violators.
More than a dozen artists joined the suit over the last nine years, including the estate of Wells, who died in 1992 after battling throat cancer.
Under the terms of the settlement, the 15 named plaintiffs will be paid $25,000 and will be able to file claims and challenge benefit determinations in court.
The settlement also forced the AFTRA fund to streamline its claims process and establish a fund to cover the cost of successful benefit claims in the future.
The settlement comes as AFTRA leaders are close to reaching an accord with the industry that would safeguard benefits for future recording acts.
Sources for AFTRA and the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) told the Los Angeles Times that a three-year deal is likely to be announced next week that will provide full health-care coverage for all artists on major labels. The proposal also would require labels to increase contributions to artist pensions by about 10 percent.
Greg Hessinger, the national executive director of AFTRA, said the settlement provides the groundwork for important labor issues within the music industry.
"Not only have the previous offensive provisions been deleted, but new artist-friendly arbitration procedures have been established," Hessinger said in a statement.
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Janice "Busgal" Brooks
ICQ 44729047
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