Rams Could Face Complaint Over Band Musicians

The Los Angeles Rams may face a formal complaint from the National Labor Relations Board for abruptly switching last summer from union to non-union musicians for home games, according to an attorney for the musicians union.

The Orange County Musicians’ Assn. filed charges with the NLRB against the Rams last Oct. 12, alleging unfair labor practices. The charges have been under investigation ever since.

According to union attorney David Rosenfeld, the NLRB decided Thursday morning that the charges may warrant a formal complaint from the board unless the two parties settle first.

Bill McCauley, a supervising attorney for the NLRB’s Region 21 office, said he could neither confirm nor deny the report until the charged party--in this case the Rams--could be contacted. The Rams attorney was in arbitration and could not be reached Thursday, McCauley said.

In cases where an investigation determines that there are grounds for a formal complaint, McCauley said, the charged party is given a chance to settle the matter. If the charged party refuses, the matter would go before an administrative judge in two to three months.

Charges against the Rams include failure to bargain in good faith, refusal to provide information to the union and discriminating against employees because of union activities, Rosenfeld said. Rams legal adviser Steve Novak declined comment Thursday.

Union officers could not be reached for comment Thursday but have said that they would prefer to negotiate a new agreement rather than enter a lengthy legal process.

Rams team officials broke off negotiations with the union last July after 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.

The team then 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.

According to union president Frank Amoss, the Rams moved to reopen negotiations after the NLRB charges were filed. “They do want to return to union musicians,” Amoss said, but the Rams turned down a union-proposed compromise of an 18-piece band, sticking with its demands for a reduction to 15 members.

Talks broke off again, with union officials deciding to wait for results of the NLRB investigation in hopes of gaining some bargaining power.

Rosenfeld argued in the union’s original complaint that the Rams had failed to bargain in good faith.

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

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