## Facts

- California Music Theatre, Inc. (CMT) was a nonprofit theater company that typically staged limited-run, limited-budget musical productions at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium (PCA).
- CMT and the American Federation of Musicians Local 47 (AFM) were parties to a collective-bargaining agreement (CBA) covering musicians hired for CMT productions.
- Because CMT was not treated as a “first-class” producer for its usual PCA operations, AFM granted accommodations reflected in the parties’ arrangement, including:
  - allowing CMT to hire 18 musicians per production rather than the 21 typically required for performances at the PCA, and
  - allowing CMT to pay those musicians at a lower rate than would otherwise apply at the PCA.
- The CBA also provided that AFM’s “normal rules and regulations,” including employment and wage regulations, applied except where those rules conflicted with the CBA’s negotiated terms.
- The parties did not specifically address how staffing and pay rules would work if CMT later mounted a “first-class” production.
- In 1988, CMT informed AFM that it planned to stage a first-class production of *Strike Up the Band* at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (DCP), a large, premier Los Angeles venue.
- The planned DCP production involved roughly twice as many performances and more than double the budget of CMT’s usual shows.
- Under AFM’s DCP rules, productions at that venue required a minimum of 31 musicians.
- CMT did not dispute that it would pay the full rate required by AFM for productions at the DCP, but it sought a waiver of the 31-musician minimum so it could use 22 musicians.
- AFM refused to grant the waiver.
- CMT proceeded at the DCP using 22 musicians.
- AFM filed a grievance, and the dispute was submitted to arbitration (Weiss, Arbitrator).

## Issues

1. Whether the CBA’s incorporation of AFM’s normal rules and regulations required CMT to staff *Strike Up the Band* at the DCP with the AFM minimum of 31 musicians.
2. Whether the 18-musician and reduced-rate accommodations associated with CMT’s PCA productions applied to a first-class production at the DCP.
3. Whether CMT could staff below the DCP minimum after AFM refused to grant a waiver.

## Decision

- The arbitrator sustained AFM’s grievance.
- The arbitrator found that AFM’s normal DCP staffing rule requiring a 31-musician minimum applied to CMT’s first-class DCP production.
- The arbitrator determined that the PCA-related accommodations did not authorize reduced staffing for a materially larger production at a different venue governed by different AFM minimums.
- The arbitrator concluded that CMT breached the parties’ agreement (as informed by incorporated AFM rules) when it used 22 musicians at the DCP despite AFM’s denial of a waiver.
- The arbitrator awarded relief consistent with the contract violation (the publicly available summaries do not detail the remedy).

## Legal Principles

- When a CBA incorporates a union’s normal rules and regulations by reference, those rules govern unless an express contract term conflicts with them.
- Negotiated exceptions tied to a particular setting (such as a community-level production and venue) are read narrowly and do not automatically transfer to a different venue or a higher-scale, first-class production.
- A waiver request does not authorize a unilateral change: when the union declines to waive an applicable minimum, the employer remains bound by the governing minimums for that venue and type of production.

## Conclusion

In *In re California Music Theatre Inc. and American Federation of Musicians Local 47*, the arbitrator held that CMT’s PCA-based accommodations (18 musicians and reduced pay) did not carry over to CMT’s first-class production at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and that AFM’s normal DCP rule requiring a minimum of 31 musicians controlled; CMT violated the agreement by staffing only 22 musicians after AFM refused a waiver.


In re California Music Theatre Inc. and American Federation of Musicians Local 47, 94 Lab. Arb. (BNA) 92 (1989)