Union Puts Case Against Rams Before NLRB

The Orange County Musicians’ Assn. has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against the Los Angeles Rams, alleging unfair labor practices over the football team’s use this year of non-union musicians.

During the summer, the Rams assembled a band of 22 non-union musicians, including some Cal State Long Beach students. Some of those musicians have said they are being paid $50 per game, about half the union rate and not including additional benefits provided under union contracts. For the previous 10 years, the team had contracted with professional players from the musicians’ union.

The Rams broke off negotiations with the union in July when the union refused a demand to reduce the size of the band from 22 members to 15, which Rams officials said would have saved them about $1,000 per game.

In charges filed Oct. 12, the union’s attorney, David Rosenfeld, argues that the team has refused to bargain in good faith with the union.

“The gist of (the union’s complaint) is that this one of the most amateurish efforts in negotiation on the part of an employer,” Rosenfeld said Monday. “They (the Rams) thought that bargaining meant making a demand on a union and then implementing it.

“Under the National Labor Relations Act, a party making changes like the Rams did is required to give notice to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and to the California State Conciliation Service. The Rams amateurishly failed to do that.”

Rosenfeld also charged that the Rams organization has failed to provide information about the band that is currently playing for Rams games. He said the union is entitled to such information. “The union has asked for the names of musicians and rates of pay (because the union) will be entitled to back pay from the labor board” should the case be resolved in the union’s favor, he said.

“It’s strange that a team so professionally run in other areas would hire amateurs to play the music,” he added.

Rams spokesman Marshall Klein and legal adviser Steve Novak did not return calls to The Times.

The union’s charge is being investigated by the NLRB’s Region 21 office which covers Orange, Riverside, San Diego and Imperial counties as well as half of Los Angeles County. After the investigation, the regional director will decide whether a formal complaint and a hearing before a judge are warranted.

Neil Warheit, the investigating agent, said the process generally takes 30 to 45 days.