NLRB Charges Rams in Firing of Union Musicians

A complaint against the Los Angeles Rams was issued Wednesday by the National Labor Relations Board over the team’s switch last summer from union to non-union musicians for home games.

The complaint was to have been issued last week but was delayed to give the team further opportunity to settle its dispute with the Orange County Musicians’ Assn. But no settlement was reached, and the team threatened to use tapes instead of live music, according to a union attorney.

The union charged the Rams with unfair labor practices in October after the team dumped its union band of 22 musicians and hired a less expensive group of non-union musicians, many of them students.

The Rams now face a hearing before an administrative judge in two to three months, when the Rams could be forced to pay $25,000 in wages and an undisclosed amount in benefits to the musicians who were put out of work for the 11 home games in the season just ended. The team also could be required to bargain in good faith with the union in the future.

But Frank Amoss, president of the union local, said he would like to see the matter settled before it reaches the hearing stage.

“Ideally, I’d like them to settle and say, ‘Hey, let’s go back to the relationship we’ve had in the past . . . and have the people enjoy the benefits of a live professional band at games,’ ” Amoss said.

“I really am disturbed by the Rams’ suggestion that they might drop live music and go to tapes,” Amoss said, referring to the statement reportedly made by team officials last week. Amoss said taped music at live events is part of a trend that is “contributing to putting musicians on the endangered species list.”

The Rams have consistently failed to return phone calls from The Times regarding the dispute.

Rams team officials broke off negotiations with the union in July, when the union refused to reduce 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 Cal State Long Beach students. Some of those musicians have said they were paid $50 per game, about half the union rates and not including benefits. For 10 years, the team had contracted with professional players from the musicians’ union.

Amoss says the Rams moved to reopen negotiations after the NLRB charges were filed but turned down a union-proposed compromise of an 18-piece band, sticking with its demand for 15 members.