The International Federation of Musicians (french: Federation Internationale des Musiciens, FIM) is a

global union federation A global union federation (GUF) is an international federation of national trade unions organizing in specific industry sectors or occupational groups. Historically, such federations in the social democratic tradition described as international t ...

bringing together trade unions representing music performers. FIM counts member unions in 70 countries and three regional groups in Europe, Africa and Latin America. It is a member of the Council of Global Unions.

History

The federation was established on 3 August 1948 at a conference in Zurich, which had been organised on the initiative of the Swiss Musicians' Union. From 1951, it held meetings with the members of the

Berne Convention The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, was an international assembly held in 1886 in the Swiss city of Bern by ten European countries with the goal to agree on a set of leg ...

, the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...

, the IFPI, and the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

, to negotiate the copyright rights of musicians. For many years, the secretariat was independent of both the main international federations of trade unions, the

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) was an international trade union. It came into being on 7 December 1949 following a split within the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), and was dissolved on 31 October 2006 when ...

and the

World Federation of Trade Unions The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is an international federation of trade unions established in 1945. Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the organization built on the pre-war legacy of the International Federation of ...

, and as such, by the 1980s, it represented both unions in capitalist countries, and in communist countries such as Cuba. In 1997, the organisation affiliated to the

International Arts and Entertainment Alliance The International Arts and Entertainment Alliance (IAEA) is a global union federation (GUF) representing trade unions of performers and technicians in the music and audiovisual sectors. The alliance has three sections: the International Federat ...

. The secretariat is currently based in Paris, France.

Affiliates

The following unions were affiliated in March 2022:

Leadership

General Secretaries

:1948: Rudolf Leuzinger :1982: Yvonne Burckhardt :1990s: Jean Vincent :2002: Benoît Machuel

Presidents

:1948: William Batten :1950:

Hardie Ratcliffe John Hardie Ratcliffe (2 January 1906 – 26 May 1975) was an English musician, and General Secretary of the United Kingdom Musicians' Union from 1948. Ratcliffe was born in 1906 in Liverpool, and named after Keir Hardie. In childhood, he play ...

:1973: John Morton :2004: John F. Smith

External links

Official FIM website

Official website of the International Orchestra Conference

Travelling with a musical instrument in compliance with CITES

Official website of the International Arts and Entertainment Alliance (IAEA)

References

{{Authority control Trade unions established in 1948 Global union federations Musicians' trade unions