By SUSAN PARK

"It's not about money," exclaimed Motter Forman, secretary/treasurer for the American Federation of Musicians Local 76-493, when asked why her union is encouraging Civic Light Opera musicians to picket the Lake City-area theatre company.

"Why do all the papers keep asking me about money? It's not about money, it's about respect," said Forman in a recent interview.

However, three picketing musicians interviewed by the Jet City Maven mentioned money as one of their primary reasons for pushing for the unionization of CLO musicians.

Max Baldonado, a professional reed musician who has been playing for CLO for the past 4 1/2 years, said he would like to be paid more money. He says his biggest beef with CLO is the amount of money and the way he is paid. Not only does CLO not take out his taxes, they also pay him a lump sum for the show's entire run rather than per individual performance.

Margaret Olson, a violinist who has been concertmistress for most of CLO's shows since 1980, says money is, in fact, one of the biggest grievances of the musicians.

Olson says that music is a profession with a lot of out-of-pocket expenses because musicians must constantly replace strings and reeds as well as pay maintenance costs for their already pricey instruments. "Doubles (musicians who play two separate instruments for a show) would like to get double the pay," she said. "They have to cart all that stuff in, set up, and cart all that stuff out."

Basoonist Judy Stoffel Loewen, a CLO veteran of more than 18 years, agreed, saying that one of her concerns is that there is "no doubling fee" paid to CLO musicians.

Olson added that another frustration CLO musicians face is not knowing how much you'll be able to get paid for each show. "It's not spelled out. Each person negotiates their own thing," said Olson, adding that that isn't a standard practice for professional musicians.

ALMA BADTEN, a volunteer who serves as CLO's box office/business manager, said it is debatable whether CLO can afford to pay the musicians any more than they are already paying. She says the struggling, non-profit, community theater was $40,000 over budget last year.

Of all the temporary help that CLO hires, the musicians are among the highest paid, said Badten, who added that consideration is made to accommodate the expensive maintenance and transportation costs of the instruments.

Looking at CLO, you wouldn't question the validity of their claiming "non-professional" status. The company is based in the old Jane Addams School building, which is shared with a School District alternative school program called Summit Alternative K-12.

CLO's offices, which are located beside the school offices for Summit, are cluttered with storage items and furnished with hand me downs and parts of old sets. Two of CLO's three computer systems are old and outdated. The heat is controlled by the school and they must pay $50 a night to have it heated on rehearsal and performance nights. Rent goes up four percent per year, said Badten.

The performance space itself is an aging school auditorium. The acoustics are mediocre, although CLO makes up for it by bringing in a talented cast. Sets and costumes are put together creatively on a shoestring budget. The little girls room is exactly that - a bathroom used during the day by kindergartners and first graders. Toys and drawings decorate the "child-sized" facilities.

With CLO's tickets affordably priced between $14 and $18 per show, it's one of the best bargains in town.

CLO Production Manager Don Curioso said there are only 2-1/2 permanent paid positions at CLO: himself, CLO's new Artistic Director Jared Shaver, and a part-time office person. Everyone else, he says, is hired on a temporary basis for one of CLO's four shows a year.

CLO's most recent show, "The Boyfriend," included 28 stage hands, the cast of 22 singing and acting performers, and an orchestra pit of nine musicians. CLO is lucky in that respect - many community theaters their size cannot afford live musicians at all and must rely on taped music scores.

However, CLO could stand to benefit by hiring a CPA, possibly a volunteer, to assist in adjusting the manner in which it pays its hired help.

THE PROBLEM is that many of these grievances are not ever getting to them, said Scott Green, CLO's former Artistic Director, who now works in a different field. Green left CLO in December - "not because of the strike," he said, but because he had a better job offer.

Green said if the musicians would just bring their complaints to CLO, he is sure the company would try its best to fix them. The problem, Green suspected, is that the musicians' union has asked CLO musicians to not talk about their problems individually because it would weaken their "group" cause.

Picketing musician Max Baldonado confirmed Green's suspicion. "If we gave them (CLO) a list, they would just fix what's on the list and say that the problem's solved," Baldonado said. But he added: "That's not going to diffuse our main goal, which is to sit at the table and negotiate."

Ironically, Alma Badten herself is a volunteer who gets paid $1 a year from Civic Light Opera. She is a retired employee of 12 years from noone else but the Teamsters, where she worked in the union's local head office. Badten said she understands the plight of the underpaid, overworked employee, and their need to organize. However, Badten believes that CLO, as a small community theater, is not appropriate for a union contract.

Unlike the larger theaters, CLO is considered a stepping stone for musicians to gain experience before moving on to higher paying positions, said Badten. Their policy is to allow "anyone - your cousin, your daughter, your uncle" an opportunity to try out for a part. Many of the musicians CLO hires have day jobs that pay their bills. CLO musicians have included nurses, teachers and full-time parents. One of the picketing musicians manages a retail music store.

PART OF THE PLIGHT for a professional musician such as Baldonado, who tries to make his entire living from performances, is that there are simply not enough paying gigs to go around.

Olson said her guess is the ratio of total jobs for musicians, both union and non-union, is "about one job to three people ready to play for that job."

Motter Forman of the AFM said that there are only between about 147 to 180 paying union contract performance positions at any one given time compared to 900 current Local members. Her Local serves the area between Everett to SeaTac on the western side of Lake Washington.

Currently, the union holds contracts with the 5th Avenue Theatre, Paramount, Seattle Rep, Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, and the Cornish College of the Arts, which hires musicians to accompany ballet performances. Forman says many of the musicians her Local represents make their living by playing private parties, receptions, etc.

The AFM is willing to do a lot to assist CLO in the transformation into a union house, said Forman. The union is willing to perform tax services for CLO for a fee. CLO would be asked to pay the AFM a lump sum and the union would in turn take out the necessary taxes and union dues and pay salaries to the individual musicians. Forman said the union's current proposal for a contract with CLO doesn't contain a request for more money.

A union contract may mean that the musicians can receive pay on a "per service" basis, rather than at the end of the show; that their taxes will be taken out for them; that musicians are hired on a seniority basis; and that grievances can be taken to an appointed representative.

Forman said the AFM's membership dues are a flat fee, "probably one of the cheapest membership dues in the Labor Council." Forman said from that, the union then receives "work dues" - a percentage of any monies members receive for performing.

For the musicians who already play for CLO, a union contract may mean that they will be required to join the AFM, even if they are a college student who is playing the gig for fun.

It would also mean that, from that point on, at this gig and at any other gig they play, whether union or non-union, they would be expected to pay a percentage of their take to the AFM. This would include everything from Bar Mitzvah's to barbecues and weddings. Of course, this is all on an honor system.

One musician told the Maven that a lot of union members get around that hassle by simply not letting the union know about their non-union gigs. That tactic works provided they don't get caught.

Badten remembers one time, five years ago, when AFM officials paid a surprise visit to a CLO show to discover some of their members playing there unauthorized. "The union says they weren't supposed to be here," Badten recalled. She said CLO's then-music director, the late Mary Levine, was aghast. However, Levine was able to work it out and the union agreed to allow the union musicians to continue playing the shows as long as they paid a percentage of their earnings to the AFM.

CLO HAS A TIDY INVESTMENT ACCOUNT - a nest egg toward the eventual buying of its own space. The savings, estimated at around $375,000, is only enough to buy a large house at today's current Seattle prices and not nearly enough to purchase a small $2 million or so theater. The account is the accumulation of about 20 years of savings.

Today, the money may have to be used as an emergency fund. Each of the four yearly CLO performances costs about $60,000 to produce and perform.

However, CLO may not have to dip into their fund this time. The Lake City Chamber of Commerce, area businesses, and other local theaters have all rallied financial support for their community theater by donating items to be raffled.

In addition, CLO patrons have been showing up at performances in full force. A recent Saturday night performance that this reporter attended in February was packed to the gills. The comp seats in the front reserved for the media were all that was left.

Badten said the union has gotten "nasty" in its picketing. At performances since December, union members parked their cars "catawompous" all over the parking lot to keep patrons from parking.

Outside, the pro-union strikers yell to patrons that the evening's show has been canceled and to demand their money back. Badten, herself, said she even had a molotov cocktail thrown on her porch at home. A backstage hand was attacked and an elderly patron was tripped, Badten said.

Inside, six union members are allowed to demonstrate by giving performances and speeches.

Curt Firestone, Co-Chair of the Seattle Progressive Coallition, stood in the lobby before a recent performance and discussed with patrons the musicians' right to organize. Although he admitted that CLO may not be the type of big business that unions usually fight, in this case, he said his main argument is with CLO's unwillingness to sit back down to the bargaining table.

Even though CLO held several meetings with the AFM last summer, Firestone said too much time has passed and that it needs to try again.

Baldonado said that even though there were negotiations last summer, he said the meetings were unproductive. "They (CLO officials) have sat in the same room with us, but none of them said a word," he said.

CLO board members now say they are not willing to negotiate because they feel that it is ridiculous to even consider signing a union contract with the AFM. The CLO Board claims that the National Relations Board has ruled that since CLO is a non-profit organization with an annual budget of less than $500,000, and since it is not involved in interstate commerce, it does not even qualify for unionization.

THE AFM INITIALLY CLAIMED that 80 percent of CLO's musicians were in favor of unionizing. However, according to a fact sheet circulated by the CLO board, the tally of the musicians' votes paints a different picture. Although the union gathered 39 of 72 possible signatures, CLO discovered that four of the musicians who voted had not played for CLO in at least four years. Of the remaining 35 votes, 17 were not eligible to vote under the AFM's own rules because they had played too few performances.

And while Motter Forman, Curt Firestone, members of the CWA, Teamsters, and other labor unions continue to march in solidarity outside of the Jane Addams building during CLO performances - all in the name of "respect," the actual picketing CLO musicians who are now without a job are wondering where their next gigs will come from.

As picketer Max Baldonado says, he has been hit twice in the last month by failed job prospects and is now considering relocating out of state. "I just want it to be over," he said.

Susan Park is co-publisher of the Jet City Maven. Maven reporter Nick Slepko also contributed to this report.

This story contains corrections from the version printed in the paper:
(1) Alma Badten was incorrectly reported to be living off a pension from the Teamsters. Although she is retired from the Teamsters, her pension is actually from her husband's former employment with the State of Washington.
(2) The actual amount of the cost of each performance is around $60,000. The amount was incorrectly reported as $40,000 which is the cost without labor.