Streaming: help us change the game!
Whilst music streaming businesses develop at a quick pace, performers are still not rewarded fairly — if at all — when their performances are exploited online.
Together with three other international organisations (AEPO-ARTIS, FIA and IAO), FIM is involved in the Fair Internet campaign, which is asking for the introduction in EU law of a fair and equitable remuneration to be paid to performers every time their performances are used online.
This campaign needs your support. Here is what you are requested to do
— Sign the campaign petition and share it on social networks.
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Will the EU ensure social protection for the self-employed?
With the active collaboration of EAEA, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is pursuing its project dedicated to self-employed workers. Within the scope of this project, a workshop focusing on the social protection issue was organised in Paris on 6 – 7 September 2017.
Choosing the moment when people are returning to work in 2017 to hold this workshop owes nothing to chance. The European Commission has just completed a first round of consultation on the opportunity of reviewing the 91/533/CEE directive (relating to the written statement) and the possibility of a legislative initiative aimed at guaranteeing workers equal access to social protection, regardless of their working relationship.
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France | CGT reacts to Labour reform
CGT statement
CASUALIZATION AS A SOCIAL MODEL IN FRANCE? DEFINITELY NO!
On 31 August, the French government finally published decrees which alter labour law, for the second time in little over a year. Less rights for workers, more power for employers: that is, in a nutshell, the contents of this new law.
This further social retrenchment goes much further than the previous reform (so-called “El-Khomri Law”), although the El-Khomri Law was explicitly condemned by the United Nations as contrary to France’s international Commitments1 and against which a complaint has been lodged with the International Labour Organisation2.
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Ivory Coast | The projects of Musicians’ Union SAMCI
With the Ivory Coast Musicians’ Union (SAMCI), FIM organised a national workshop for union training in Abidjan, from 18 – 21 July 2017, within the framework of its regional programme supported by Union to Union. Focusing on union organisation and action, as well as gender equality, the workshop was rounded off by a press release.
SAMCI is a recent organisation founded during its general assembly which took place in 2017. Facing significant political tensions, the country has a strong-potential economy but one which produces deep inequalities.
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Kenya | Social dialogue and gender equality
Kenyan union KeMU is devising a road map for concrete initiatives in the field of social dialogue and gender equality
With KeMU, FIM organised a national workshop (Nairobi, 3 – 6 July 2017) within the scope of the union training programme backed by Union to Union. Mainly focusing on the implementation of pilot collective agreements including provisions for gender equality, the workshop featured a contribution from an expert in collective bargaining from BMU (United Kingdom).
As in Senegal, concluding pilot collective agreements in the music sector is a core concern for KeMU, which is aiming to limit the casualisation of employment conditions and remuneration of musicians, in a widely informal sector.
Pilot collective agreements in the music sector are a core concern for KeMU, which is aiming to limit the casualisation of employment conditions
This particularly difficult exercise is complicated by the fact that the competent administrative commission has not yet made its decision whether to register KeMU as a union.
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To the memory of my friend Abiadé Adéwusi
Passed away on Saturday 1 July 2017, Abiadé Adewusi, President of SARIAC (Togo), played a key role in founding the FIM African group in 1997
By Roméo Dika, FIM Vice-President
During the WIPO seminar organised in Lomé in 1997, helping train our new and inexperienced organisations in many fields which were of interest to corporation, Jean Vincent, then FIM General Secretary, proposed that African associative and union organisations belong to FIM.
While the other Africans turned away from this proposal, Abiadé Adewusi brought together Mamadou Barry and Ryad Challoub from Guinea, Ismael Lo from Senegal, Valen Guédé from the Ivory Coast and myself for Cameroon in a restaurant.
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UNESCO | 6th Conference of Parties to the 2005 Convention
States which were Party to the 2005 Convention on Cultural Diversity adopt operational guidelines in the digital environment
From 12 to 15 June 2017, UNESCO hosted the 6th Conference of Parties to the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in Paris. When assessing the conference, there are both positive and negative points.
Among the positive aspects, we can note the importance given to civil society organisations (NGOs) which organised their own forum on 12 June and are now recognized by the Secretariat and Member States as essential partners for implementing the Convention.
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A successful 4th International Orchestra Conference
The 4th FIM International Orchestra Conference which took place in Montreal from 11 to 14 May 2017, drew about 300 participants
After Berlin (2008), Amsterdam (2011) and Oslo (2014), FIM’s International Orchestra Conference took place for the first time on North American soil, in Montreal, in cooperation with the Quebec Musicians’ Guild (GMMQ, local 406 of the AFM).
Within the scope of a specific partnership, all delegates were invited to attend the closing concert of Montreal’s International Musical Competition, with prizewinners from the 2017 edition and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Claus Peter Flor.
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Ireland | Right to collective bargaining restored for freelancers
The Irish Parliament restores the right of freelance workers to collective bargaining in an amendment to the Competition Act (on 31 May 2017)
On the evening of 31 May, the Irish Parliament adopted the Labour Party proposed Competition Amendment Bill 2016, which aims to introduce exemptions from competition law for certain self-employed workers.
Since a competition ruling was handed down thirteen years ago, agreements negotiated with artists unions on minimum tariffs have been considered as breaches of competition law.
Musicians, journalists and voice over actors will be the first to take advantage of the reform
To avoid the competition law a union has to prove either that its members are false independent workers (in a subordinate relationship, obliged to follow instructions, do not share the same business risks as their contractors etc.) or are ‘fully dependent’ workers (deriving most of their income from a maximum of two sources), both notions which for the first time are being defined.
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