6 bunker-busters and 30 Tomahawk missiles used

TEHRAN: US President Donald Trump has claimed that American fighter jets bombed three Iranian nuclear sites, heightening global tensions. On the 21st (local time), Trump posted on his social media account ‘Truth Social’, stating, “We have just completed a very successful attack on three of Iran’s nuclear sites — Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan — and all aircraft have exited Iranian airspace and are returning safely.”

Trump added, “A full payload of bombs was dropped on Fordow, the main target, and no other military in the world could have carried out this mission. Now is the time for peace.”

This strike appears to have provided direct US military support for Israel’s ongoing attacks on Iran. It is reported that Trump made the decision after four consecutive days of national security team meetings. Although he had given Iran a final deadline of two weeks on the 19th, the sudden strike was carried out just two days later.

Fox News reported that the US military dropped six bunker-buster bombs on Fordow and launched 30 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the other two facilities. The GBU-57 bunker-buster, weighing about 13.6 tons, is known as a massive bomb capable of destroying deeply buried nuclear facilities without the need for a ground operation.

Reuters confirmed that multiple B-2 stealth bombers were moved from the US base in Guam just before the strike and were directly involved in the operation.

The White House announced that the President will deliver a national address at 10 PM Eastern Time on the 21st (11 AM Korean Time on the 22nd) to outline further measures and the official stance.

Trump emphasized, “This is a historic moment for the United States, Israel, and the world. Iran must now agree to end the war.” CNN reported that Trump stated there are “no additional airstrike plans at this time.”

As a result of this strike, tensions between the US and Iran have escalated to an extreme level, and concerns over renewed instability in the Middle East are spreading once again.

Read: Conflict Alters Global Security Paradigms

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Courtesy: The AsiaN, Seoul, South Korea  

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From Correspondent

Sukkur, Sindh

Jeay Sindh Mahaz Chairman Riaz Chandio has announced a complete strike throughout Sindh on May 28 against bogus digital census.

Addressing a press conference in Sukkur Press Club on Thursday along with Asadullah Soomro, Kamal Khan Mahar, Nazir Ahmed Sheikh and others, he said that after the separation of Bengal, continuous conspiracies are being hatched to turn Sindhis into a minority.

He said that there are 4 million Afghans living in Karachi alone. “Sindh is the mother of 60 million Sindhis, but squares and intersections of Karachi are being occupied, and outsiders are doing drug business.”

He said this season is of farming but there is no water, and Punjab is occupying illegally water share of Sindh while Sindh is being left behind in terms of population.

He said that there is bandit rule in the two divisions of Sindh including Larkana and Sukkur where criminals openly challenge writ of the government.

He said that the government has failed miserably to bring peace in Sindh and also to provide basic rights to the people of Sindh.

He said that JSM is going to observe strike against the fake census in Sindh on 28 May.

He said that political parties, lawyers and businessmen have also supported the strike call.

He said that Sindh is rich in resources, but starvation has been imposed by the rulers.

He said that this is a right time to come out against slavery. He categorically stated: “We do not hate any language. We hate the oppressive system.”

He appealed the people of Sindh to support the announced strike against the important issue of census.

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Sindh Courier

Islamabad | Karachi

Thousands of employees of Radio Pakistan observed complete country-wide strike on Thursday to lodge protest against non-payment of salaries and pensions for the month of April last.

Employees of Radio Pakistan Islamabad headquarters, Karachi and all other radio stations across the country also staged demonstrations in the premises of radio stations.

The protest demonstrations and pen down strike was observed on the call of CBA United Staff Organization against non-release of their salaries and pension.

Around 4500 retired employees and 2200 regular employees have not been paid their pensions and salaries. Moreover, 350 pensioners still await commutation for over three years.

A press release said that all the employees gathered in front of Broadcasting Houses, chanted slogans for their rights and demanded that their salaries and pension of April 2023, medical dues and other pending arrears of the employees be released immediately.

Addressing the protesters, CBA union leader Ansarul Haq said government had announced advance salary for all the government employees on Eidul Fitr which all the employees received on 22nd of last month but the employees of Radio Pakistan have not been paid that salary of April yet, whereas the salary for month of May 2023 have become due and government has announced salary in advance for all the employees after June 20.

They said non-payment of salaries and pensions has made their life hard as it has been very difficult for them to meet the ends, pay utility bills and fees of children.

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From Correspondent

Khairpur, Sindh

The members of Shah Abdul Latif University Employees Welfare Association continued their strike on Wednesday, the fourth day, and staged sit-in in front of the Administration Block to press for their demands.

Hakim Ali Phulpoto, President and Abdul Waheed Sangri General Secretary of the Shah Abdul Latif University Employees Welfare Association said that the administration, despite the approval of the Syndicate of the University, did not regularize the daily wage employees of 2007, 2008 and 2009.

They said that employees have also been deprived of leave encashment. They demanded the restoration of the services of their four daily-wage employees who were forcibly removed by the university administration.

They demanded the Medical Card Scheme facility like the Agricultural University Tando Jam, and promotions of the teachers of the Model School according to the seniority.

They demanded the Jobs under the Son Quota to the sons and daughters of the retired employees.

Association leaders said that they are determined to continue their strike until the resolution of their demands.

It is pertinent to mention that after the disturbance of educational activities due to COVID-19, the Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur continues to experience the boycotts of the teachers, officers, employees and students badly affecting the academic process in the university.

It is said that retired employees of the university including teachers and employees are deprived of retirement benefits since 2020. Their benefits are said to be around Rs.600 million while around Rs.90 million of leave encashment are also outstanding.

Administration of the Shah Abdul Latif University argues having shortage of funds making the employees to go on strikes instead of taking concrete measures to resolve the issues.

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Paris

Under President Macron’s pension reform plan, it would require at least 43 years of work to be eligible for a full pension starting in 2027.

On Tuesday, the Democratic French Confederation of Labor (CFDT) claimed to have achieved the largest citizen mobilization of the last 40 years during protests against the reform of pensions proposed by President Emmanuel Macron.

The government “cannot continue so deaf against such massive demonstrations,” the CFDT Secretary Laurent Berger while marching with other union leaders in Paris.

Currently, fuel shipments are suspended in all refineries across France as a nationwide strike was mobilized against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform plan.

“The strike started everywhere… with shipments blocked at the exit of all the refineries this morning,” the General Confederation of Labor said, as reported by Le Figaro.

"Nous ce que l'on veut c est la grève générale a Montpellier et dans la France entière " pic.twitter.com/nWIPfpu91W

— PILORE (@pilore34000) March 7, 2023

However, Frederic Plan, a delegate of the French Federation of Fuels and Heating, said that the block of fuel deliveries from refineries would not have a severe impact on service stations. He said the energy management had prepared for this kind of situation with strategic stocks.

“We confirm that there is no lack of fuel in our stations. In addition, stocks in depots and service stations are at a high level,” France’s largest fuel company Total Energies also said, assuring that its teams were mobilized to meet an as-usual or even surplus demand.

Main French unions have called on workers to “bring France to a halt in all sectors on March 7” in order to protest against the long-disputed pension reform.

In January, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne laid out details of the pension reform plan, which would progressively raise the legal retirement age by three months a year from 62 to 64 by 2030, and introduce a guaranteed minimum pension.

Under President Macron’s pension reform plan, it would require at least 43 years of work to be eligible for a full pension starting in 2027.

For the fifth time in a month, French trade unions called for a demonstration against President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to increase the retirement age. It has been reported that protests were held in 220 cities & towns in France against proposed pension reform.

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Courtesy: TeleSur (Posted on March 7, 2023)

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Lima

On Friday, Peruvians stage the third consecutive day of protests to demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, the closure of Congress, the call for a constituent process, and the release of former President Pedro Castillo.

The land Transport Superintendence confirmed the blockade of roads in 46 sites scattered in eight regions of the country. Among them is the blockade of traffic between Puno and Arequipa, two important commercial cities.

Social organizations, trade unions, and indigenous movements called for a national strike in several regions in rejection of Dina Boluarte’s government and in support of former president Pedro Castillo.

Currently, the strongest protests are taking place in the southern part of the country. Local media report traffic blockades on the Interoceanic Highway and the Pan-American Highway, as well as protests in Andahuaylas, Aymaraes, and Abancay.

#ATENCIÓN | Policías golpean, reducen a fotoperiodistas y obstaculizan que otros periodistas capten imágenes de las agresiones.@PoliciaPeru @MininterPeru @Defensoria_Peru @ANP_periodistas @cnddhh pic.twitter.com/7LzSmhRhYP

— Wayka (@WaykaPeru) January 5, 2023

In this last region, 70 percent of the population has complied with the national strike, leaving a large number of vehicles stranded on the roads. In the city of Chalhuanca, the police tried to unblock a highway, which led to clashes with the indigenous communities.

On Thursday, protests were reported in the departments of Apurimac, Arequipa, Ayacucho, Puno, Cuzco, and Tacna. Motorcycle taxi drivers and food market workers then announced that they were joining the national strike.

Despite a persistent rain, the citizens held a sit-in in front of the Ayacucho Cathedral, from where they demanded justice for the almost 30 deaths caused by the repression in December.

In Arequipa, a mobilization of thousands of people demanded the departure of Dina Boluarte and the closure of Congress.

#Peru | Social organizations, trade unions, and indigenous movements called for a national strike in several regions in rejection of Dina Boluarte's government and in support of former president Pedro Castillo. pic.twitter.com/Ih1PG3QyTl

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) December 15, 2022

Demonstrations resumed in Peru after the Christmas truce and continue to demand the resignation of President Boluarte, the release of deposed president Pedro Castillo, the closure of Congress and early elections this year.

The South American country is under a state of emergency decreed by the government in December, in the framework of the protests unleashed since Castillo’s dismissal.

In the previous days, over 20 people died due to the repression. A subsystem of prosecutors would be created to clarify the deaths, said Attorney General Patricia Benavides.

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Courtesy: TeleSur (Posted on Jan 6, 2023)

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London

On Tuesday, the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) called over 40,000 workers for a four-day strike that will paralyze the United Kingdom until Saturday.

The massive strike occurs after the failure of negotiations with the railway company Network Rail, which did not want to carry out a 7 percent increase in wages as requested by workers in a country whose inflation has already exceeded 11 percent.

RMT Secretary Mick Lynch explained that the Conservative government’s latest wage increase offer is “totally unacceptable” to workers because it is “well below” the inflation.

He also denounced that the British government is “deliberately obstructing” the agreement between the workers and the company.

“There is an opportunity to find solutions, but I fear the government is preventing that from happening. They are deliberately obstructing that deal,” Lynch said.

“The government wants the strikes to continue because they need what we call a cuckoo, someone to distract from the problems and from their own incompetence,” he added, recalling that social discontent with conservative policies has increased strikes over the last year.

The latest protests have been led by health workers, doctors, ambulance drivers, postal workers, and teachers. This week, nurses, highway maintenance workers and baggage handlers at London’s Heathrow airport will also go on strike.

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Courtesy: TeleSur (Published on Dec 13, 2022)

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Miryam Naddaf

More than 70,000 academics and staff members at 150 UK universities began the largest strike in the history of higher education on 24 November, in protest against poor pay, unsustainable working conditions and pension cuts. Among them are researchers who tell Nature that poor working conditions are eroding the future of UK science.

The industrial action comes after members of the University and College Union (UCU) voted in favor of the strikes in two national ballots last month. Since 2018, UCU members have gone on strike repeatedly to call for the reversal of pension’s cuts, and for better pay, more acceptable working hours and job security.

This time, strikers’ frustration centers on the 3% pay increase offered by universities for the 2022–23 academic year, amid a cost-of-living crisis and as inflation passes 11% in the United Kingdom. Staff also say that their workloads are dangerously high. UCU says that on average, university staff work two extra unpaid days per week, and that one-third of academic staff are on temporary contracts.

In a statement, the Universities and Colleges Employers Association said that the union’s demand for a pay rise of 13.6% is unrealistic and would cost institutions around £1.5 billion (US$1.8 billion).

The strikers also want universities to reverse a cut to pensions that took effect in April, which they say amounts to an average 35% loss in retirement income. The cut was made after a March 2020 evaluation of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) reported that it had a deficit of more than £14 billion. But UCU says the deficit has since been resolved, and that USS’s June financial monitoring report revealed a £1.8-billion surplus. Universities UK, which represents employers involved in USS, says that even with the cuts, the program remains one of the country’s most attractive private pension schemes, and that monitoring reports are not comparable to a full valuation, which is a more comprehensive assessment of the scheme.

Nature spoke to three UK scientists about why they are striking this year.

‘A recipe for bad science’

Helen Coulshed, chemist at King’s College London

While some vice-chancellors earn £500,000 and can claim expenses for all sorts of luxuries, our PhD students and staff are using food banks. They’re deciding which days they can eat, or which meals to skip. That level of discrepancy in one university is not acceptable.

At King’s, we’ve got a 15% gender pay gap, and a 19% ethnicity pay gap. There’s a real lack of commitment to changing that. How can we possibly have the best and brightest in terms of diversity of perspective and equality of access to universities, if we are not paying people the same? It’s a recipe for bad science and lack of innovation. The fact that we can all be on strike together means that it’s harder to ignore.

At King’s, student numbers have increased by 25% over the past two years. At the same time, we’ve had a 3.9% increase in staff. So, our staff-to-student ratio has gone bonkers, which has knock-on effects in terms of availability of our time and headspace to think about research.

What universities are doing is a direct attack on the future of science. Even though it doesn’t feel like it’s direct, it is implicitly going to impact the future of science in the United Kingdom and globally.

‘The whole community is struggling’

Robert Thomas, biologist at Cardiff University

I’ve been involved in strikes since I started as a university lecturer, and this should be concerning to senior management teams, because their behavior continues to stimulate strike action.

My research is primarily fieldwork-based. Excessive workloads have had a massive impact on it. At one point, I was doing twice the university’s maximum teaching allocation. And that translated to about 60 minutes a week for all of my postgraduate supervision, my own research, work publications, reviewing other people’s publications and so on. That’s unacceptable in a modern, research-focused university.

At Cardiff University, we don’t have a functional workload model. So, there are no central data on who is doing what, and this leads to dangerously high workloads that are not officially recorded. This is unsustainable. We’re calling for a dialogue so that we never have to strike again.

It’s easy to feel isolated when you are working on your own in the lab or in the field and feeling that you are not able to have a proper home life and research life because of the excessive workload. But to take time out during the strike and talk to other people in the same situation brings a powerful realization that we’re not struggling in isolation. We are struggling as a whole community of teachers and researchers.

‘I’m going to stop peer reviewing for profit-making publishers’

Richard Harris, geographer at the University of Bristol

I don’t often go on strike. But I’m going this time for two reasons. This is the 12th year in a row in which the employers have offered below-inflation pay increases, which means the salary scales are getting less and less each year. They’ve offered a 3% pay increase, but inflation is about 11%. That’s an 8% pay cut in real terms, equivalent to losing one month’s pay.

Added to that is the pension cuts. We’ve had cut after cut after cut, and I don’t think it’s sustainable in terms of science in the United Kingdom, because people will and have already started leaving. Academia is becoming a less attractive job for PhD students.

I’m going to stop peer reviewing for profit-making publishers until the industrial dispute is settled, because it relies on goodwill and very little of it’s actually paid. The wider academic system — and this includes publishing — relies on goodwill and on people doing things that are outside their contracts.

There’s no particular reason why an academic has to peer review a paper for a journal; it’s not in their contract to do so. The reason we do so is because universities are about the exchange of information and knowledge. But when you keep cutting people’s pay and pensions, that goodwill begins to dissipate.

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Courtesy: Nature (Published on Nov 25, 2022)

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By Allah Bux Khushik

Dadu, Sindh

Chaki owners of Dadu district observed strike on Tuesday, kept closed their Chaki and stopped wheat flour supply to public in the district for alleged wheat quota issue with food department.

Chaki Association Dadu district president Sikandar Ali Lakhair, Irfan Ali Shaikh, Zahid Hussain Lashari, Farooq Ahmed Korejo and other Chaki owners of district have recoded their protest against food department for alleged decrease in their quota of wheat.

Chaki Association president Sikandar Ali Lakhair alleged that food department has decreased Dadu district’s wheat quota without any reason. He said that last year they had received forty thousand bags weighing 100 kg each for 243 Chaki (small wheat grinding units) owners in Dadu, Mehar, Johi and Khairpur Nathan Shah towns but now food officials have released only fifteen thousand wheat bags for one month.

He said that after floods, Dadu district was worst affected in Sindh but food department has decreased quota of district which is injustice because flood affected people of KN Shah, Mehar and Johi Talukas have migrated to Dadu city therefore population has increased but the wheat quota has decreased.

General Secrectry Irfan Ali Shaikh alleged that in Dadu district there are two Floor Mills, but food department officials have provided thirty thousand wheat bags for one month to them but have cut the quota of Chakis. He demanded food minister to take serious notice and provide them wheat as per quota or otherwise they would continue strike and would not start flour supply.

The conflict between the Chaki owners and food department officials over quota issue, has rendered many Chaki laborers jobless.

Meanwhile the market survey revealed that the price of wheat flour price has increased 35 rupee in per kg from Rs.65 to Rs.100 but district administration has failed to take serious action against profiteers.

This scribe contacted Food Inspector and Deputy Commissioner but they were not available for comment about alleged wheat quota issue of Chaki owners and hike in wheat flour price.

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Joey De La Neve Defrancesco

This year marks the eightieth anniversary of the American Federation of Musicians’ 1942–44 strike against the recording industry. Demanding a bigger cut of the profits created by new recording technologies, the AFM’s roughly 136,000 members refused to produce any recordings for two full years. And they won.

Following the “recording ban,” as the strike is commonly known, the AFM secured contracts with over six hundred record labels that required each company to cough up a royalty fee for every record sold. The royalty fund was then used to pay musicians across the United States and Canada to perform free public concerts. For decades, the union-controlled fund was the largest employer of musicians in the country.

As musicians today contemplate how to demand more money from streaming services that pay just one-third of a cent per stream, the AFM’s successful strike offers key lessons about how to win a better deal for labor. After all, this radical change did not emerge from the actions of a few isolated celebrities, nor a disorganized consumer boycott, nor a tech utopian cure-all, but rather the flexing of strike power by an organized mass of music workers.

The Rise of the Musicians’ Union

The American Federation of Musicians was founded in 1896 by a coalition of local musician unions that split with an earlier, more conservative federation called the National League of Musicians (NLM). In its first decades, the AFM rapidly expanded, coming to dominate the entertainment industries across the United States and Canada. Unlike the NLM, the AFM extended membership to “any musician who receives pay for his musical services” and organized musicians at thousands of small theaters, cabarets, orchestras, and other employers in dozens of cities.

Their efforts were so successful that within two decades, the union ran a “closed shop” in most major cities: if you wanted to perform, you had to be in the union. The result was a gradual but substantial increase in wages for musicians from the AFM’s founding until the Great Depression. AFM membership nearly doubled between 1918 and 1928 to some 150,000 musicians.

While more and more musicians faced unemployment, the broadcast and recording companies were seeing unprecedented profits.

In the late 1920s, however, the combination of new technologies and an increasingly concentrated music industry undercut the AFM’s progress. First came the Vitaphone, an audio system that allowed prerecorded sound to be synced with motion pictures, displacing the tens of thousands of live musicians that had accompanied silent films. Not long after, radio stations began to broadcast recorded music via special records called “transcriptions,” displacing the musicians who played live music on broadcasts. Jukeboxes and the mass production of record players and vinyl records for the consumer market in the 1940s further removed the need for live musicians.

While more and more musicians faced unemployment, the broadcast and recording companies were seeing unprecedented profits by the late 1930s. Three companies — Decca, Columbia, and RCA Victor — dominated the production of records. A few networks — NBC, CBS, and Mutual — controlled most of the airwaves. Monopolistic companies like RCA came to own a network, a host of radio stations, a record label, and a transcription label. The industry set up a trade group, the National Association of Broadcasters, which became the primary adversary of the AFM.

For musicians, it was clear the industry was making boatloads of money with the new technologies. The question was how to wrest back a bigger share of the profits.

From Boycott to Strike

The AFM’s first strategy was a consumer-focused PR campaign. Under the leadership of its president, Joseph Webster, the union launched a national effort to convince consumers that live music was aesthetically and morally superior to recorded music. The union sent mailers, took out ads in newspapers, and held parades and marches to gin up public support for live musicians.

But despite garnering some approval from audiences, the campaign floundered. The AFM severely misjudged music consumers, many of whom regarded the AFM as foolishly anti-technology and anti-progress. And by depending on audiences for leverage, the union failed to build power among its own members. Musician unemployment continued to soar, and the AFM steadily hemorrhaged members and money through the mid-1930s. Calls for more radical, worker-based action grew louder.

The AFM began to answer that call in 1937, when Weber finally jettisoned his accommodationist policies and told radio affiliates that his union would strike if they refused to employ a certain number of live musicians. The militant strategy picked up steam in 1940, when James Petrillo, the leader of Chicago Local 10, took over as AFM president. As the head of Chicago, Petrillo had frequently used strikes to win concessions from the city’s radio stations. Petrillo brought that muscular approach to the national level, and, by 1940, the AFM led a set of brief but victorious walkouts against radio stations that were refusing to maintain staff orchestras.

The AFM started to expand again, with membership mushrooming from 105,000 to 136,000 between 1936 and 1942. But forcing radio to retain live musicians could only slow the march of technological displacement for so long. Soon the AFM decided to take on the root problem: corporate control over the creation and broadcast of recorded music.

The Recording Strike

In June 1942, the union announced that its tens of thousands of members would refuse to produce any new recordings in the United States or Canada. Initially, the union did not present a clear demand to the music industry; instead, the AFM simply declared that music workers were striking because they deserved greater compensation from an industry that was raking in massive profits from their work.

The strike infuriated both recording companies and broadcasters, who launched an aggressive PR campaign against Petrillo and the AFM, branding them as unpatriotic Luddites. It was an unfair charge: the union sought not to destroy recording technology but rather to gain a bigger piece of the surplus created by the new technologies. But the strike proved contentious, especially because it erupted during World War II, when the AFL and CIO had both signed no-strike pledges with the US government. (The union did carve out an exception for “V-Discs,” records destined for soldiers or to promote the war effort.)

Despite the headwinds, AFM members showed remarkable solidarity and discipline. Stars like Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman stood on strike alongside tens of thousands of nameless working musicians. Compliance was so strict that scabs like Frank Sinatra had to hire a capella group to sing backup on his 1943 releases (AFM instrumentalists had all refused), and musicologists still bemoan the lack of any recorded evidence of the initial development of bebop in the early 1940s. Musician unions in several South American and European countries also pledged support by refusing to export records to the United States and Canada.

While the strike began with no clear demand, the AFM quickly coalesced around the idea that record companies should pay a fixed royalty into a union fund for every record produced. This pot of money would be used to hire musicians to give free public performances, thus employing displaced musicians and bringing free music to audiences. The union had failed in earlier efforts to force broadcasters and labels to pay royalties on recorded music. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers had successfully used copyright law to win royalties for songwriters and publishers, but the AFM repeatedly lost similar legal battles on royalties for musicians. The AFM’s new demand for a recording fund was a brilliant workaround, creating a royalty for musicians without relitigating copyright law.

Unable to break AFM solidarity, the recording and broadcast companies turned to the state. The companies mounted an antitrust case against the union, appealed to the War Labor Board and the Economic Stabilization Board, and requested that Petrillo be called to testify before Congress. President Franklin D. Roosevelt personally wired Petrillo to ask him to end the strike. But the companies lost their lawsuits, and when the boards and the president urged the AFM to end the strike, the union simply ignored their requests.

Black locals made the best of a bad situation, successfully organizing, setting wage scales, and improving conditions for their members.

Before long, some labels broke rank and agreed to negotiate with the union. Decca Records was the first to crack, inking a contract in September 1943 that required them to pay into the union’s fund. Nearly a hundred small labels followed Decca’s lead and also signed contracts, but the two largest labels — RCA Victor and Columbia — refused to come to the table. After another year of strong AFM solidarity, and seeing that Decca was gaining market share through their renewed production, RCA Victor and Columbia also capitulated November 11, 1944. The remaining smaller labels then fell in line too, and when the dust settled the AFM had won agreements with some six hundred labels.

The contracts mandated that companies contribute to the newly created Record and Transcription Fund (RTF) at a rate of a quarter cent to 5 cents for records sold at up to $2, and at 2.5 percent of the sale price for records above $2. Transcription companies ponied up 3 percent of the gross revenues from leasing their works. Beginning in 1947, AFM members received union-scale pay for performing at schools, parks, nursing homes, and other public venues; over the three-year contract, the fund collected roughly $4.5 million, which footed the bill for nearly nineteen thousand performances and forty-five thousand individual paychecks.

Petrillo hailed the Record and Transcription Fund as the “greatest victory . . . in the history of the labor movement” — undoubtedly an exaggeration, but not entirely off base. For the first time in US history, a union had forced an industry to provide income for technologically displaced workers.

The Anti-Labor Assault

After World War II, a more conservative federal government responded to growing labor militancy and employer outrage by passing a raft of anti-union laws. Under intense pressure from the National Association of Broadcasters, Congress approved the 1946 Lea Act, perhaps the first federal law targeting the actions of a specific union. Nicknamed the Anti-Petrillo Law, the act barred workers from pressuring broadcasters to hire more employees or to pay for work that was not performed — thus prohibiting much of the union’s approach to radio. A year later, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act, which severely restrained US unions, including the AFM. One section in Taft-Hartley designed to stop supposed “featherbedding” made the Recording and Transcription Fund illegal.

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Joey La Neve DeFrancesco is a Rhode Island–based musician, organizer, and public historian. He is a cofounder of the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers.

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