## Facts

- J. Ned, Inc. (JNI) operated the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles as part of a nationwide theater business.
- JNI and American Federation of Musicians Local 47 (AFM) were parties to a collective-bargaining agreement (CBA) covering performances staged at the Pantages.
- The CBA required JNI to employ a minimum of 18 live musicians for performances at the Pantages.
- The CBA also strictly prohibited the use of taped music unless AFM gave prior consent.
- The CBA contained an exception: when a performance was a traveling attraction that had always used taped music, AFM could not unreasonably withhold consent to taped music.
- International Creative Management (ICM), a theatrical agency, arranged U.S. tours for the Moiseyev Dance Company (MDC) from Moscow in 1986, 1989, 1991, and 1995.
- MDC’s first three U.S. tours used a live orchestra.
- For the 1995 tour, ICM and MDC developed a new show that used taped music rather than a live orchestra.
- MDC’s 1995 itinerary included a one-week engagement at the Pantages, and other tour stops used taped music.
- JNI requested AFM’s consent to use taped music for the MDC engagement at the Pantages.
- AFM denied JNI’s request.
- JNI filed a grievance under the CBA, and the dispute was submitted to labor arbitration.

## Issues

1. Whether the MDC engagement at the Pantages qualified for the CBA’s traveling-attraction exception requiring that the attraction “had always used taped music,” given MDC’s prior U.S. tours with live orchestras and the 1995 tour’s new taped-music show.
2. If the exception applied, whether AFM’s denial of consent amounted to an unreasonable withholding of consent under the CBA.
3. How the CBA’s minimum-musician requirement and its general ban on taped music operated alongside the traveling-attraction exception.

## Decision

- A labor arbitrator issued an award reported at 105 Lab. Arb. Rep. (BNA) 631 (1995) resolving JNI’s grievance concerning AFM’s denial of consent to taped music for MDC’s Pantages engagement.
- The award’s specific disposition (whether the grievance was sustained or denied) and detailed reasoning are not available from the publicly accessible material summarized in the sources provided.

## Legal Principles

- In labor arbitration, the arbitrator’s task is to apply and interpret the parties’ negotiated CBA terms governing staffing, permitted performance practices, and any stated exceptions.
- When a CBA bars taped music absent union consent but limits the union’s ability to refuse consent for certain traveling attractions, the analysis turns on (a) whether the engagement falls within the exception’s defined conditions and (b) whether the refusal satisfies any contractual “unreasonable” constraint.
- Interpreting an exception that uses temporal language such as “had always used” may require deciding whether the relevant unit of comparison is the attraction or company generally, or the specific production being presented on the tour.
- Where a CBA contains a general rule (live-musician minimum and a taped-music restriction) plus a carve-out for certain touring shows, interpretation seeks to give effect to both provisions without treating either as meaningless.

## Conclusion

This labor-arbitration dispute arose after JNI sought to present the Moiseyev Dance Company’s 1995 touring production at the Pantages using taped music, consistent with the show’s format on other tour stops, but AFM denied consent under a CBA that required at least 18 live musicians and generally barred taped music; the arbitration addressed whether the engagement fit the CBA’s traveling-attraction exception and, if so, whether AFM’s refusal was unreasonable, though the publicly available summary does not reveal the award’s final outcome or the arbitrator’s reasoning.


In re J. Ned, Inc. and American Federation of Musicians Local 47, 105 Lab. Arb. Rep. (BNA) 631 (1995)