FIM

Hosted by union SUTM-​SUTME, a Mexican mem­ber of FIM, this sem­i­nar was part of the multi-​annual region­al project backed by LO-​TCO and SMF.

Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and the Dominican Republic were rep­re­sent­ed but, unfor­tu­nate­ly, dif­fi­cul­ties encoun­tered in obtain­ing visas pre­vent­ed oth­er coun­tries such as Cuba or Salvador from participating.

Focusing on mod­ernising unions and the sta­tus of women in union bod­ies, as well as, more gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, in the music sec­tor, the meet­ing also pro­vid­ed an oppor­tu­ni­ty to address the issue of musi­cians’ health and pre­ven­tion of risks, as well as the pro­tec­tion of per­form­ers’ intel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty rights. On this point, sig­nif­i­cant frus­tra­tion was expressed about eco­nom­ic mod­els linked with stream­ing ser­vices such as Spotify and the like, from which musi­cians only derive sym­bol­ic income, or none at all.

More or less long-​term com­mu­ni­ty goals were adopt­ed by var­i­ous organ­i­sa­tions rep­re­sent­ed, to con­tin­ue with the dri­ve towards mod­ernising unions, with each coun­try hav­ing spe­cif­ic pri­or­i­ties. As an illus­tra­tion, Guatemala should ben­e­fit from a par­tic­u­lar follow-​up so that, in 2016, it can organ­ise the found­ing con­gress for a new musi­cians’ union, cou­pled with a FIM nation­al workshop.

The sup­port of Mexican union SUTM-​SUTME and the qual­i­ty of speak­ers on all issues addressed sig­nif­i­cant­ly con­tributed to mak­ing this sem­i­nar a par­tic­u­lar high­light in the life of the region­al group (GLM), with clear com­mit­ment on the part of Mexican union lead­ers to facil­i­tate skills empow­er­ment for unions cur­rent­ly devel­op­ing or being restruc­tured in oth­er coun­tries in the group.