By CLAYTON PARK

The Jet City Maven's recent coverage of the American Federation of Musicians' efforts to pressure Civic Light Opera to only hire AFM members received a pat on the back from a most surprising source: a musicians union that views itself as an alternative to the AFM.

The International Guild of Symphony, Opera and Ballet Musicians recently contacted the Jet City Maven for permission to reprint excerpts of the cover story from the JCM's March issue (headlined: "Civic Light Opera-musicians' union struggle: What's it REALLY about?") in the Guild's Spring newsletter.

The Guild article points out that the motivation for AFM's efforts to picket CLO shows is not entirely clear. Despite AFM claims that "it's not about the money, it's about the respect," comments from picketers suggest otherwise, the article notes.

The Guild article also states that Civic Light Opera is "too small to qualify for unionization under NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) rules, according to the CLO board."

While the Guild does not have an official position on the CLO strike, its Spring newsletter included a report that KING Broadcasting Company has been receiving anonymous threats over its longstanding policy of providing free publicity to Lake City-based Civic Light Opera, which the Guild article describes as "a struggling, non-profit, non-professional community theatre which is being picketed by the musicians of AFM Local 76-493."

Guild newsletter editor Tom Dzienkonski told the JCM later that the response to his newsletter's reprinting of portions of the JCM article on the CLO strike has been "almost entirely positive. The only negative has been from the AFM which says it's anti-union. I'll address that in the next issue."

Dzienkonski added: "Rooting out corrupt thugs serves labor much better than intoning meaningless platitudes."

The Guild represents, among others, members of the Seattle Symphony and Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra. The latter group last year rejected AFM representation in favor of remaining with the Guild by a 2 to 1 vote.