Diane Tidwell Vanette remains a card-carrying SAG-AFTRA union member.
Tennessee is what is known as a “Right To Work” state. What that really means is that employers don’t need much of a reason to fire someone. In general, the state has few unions and little collective bargaining experience. Even the state’s employees organize with an “association” not a union.
The merger of AFRA, the American Federation of Radio Artists, with the Television Authority, in 1952 gave birth to AFTRA. With the inclusion of pension and health and retirement funds as a benefit of the union, AFTRA became an organization that would become attractive to the independent contractors working in Nashville’s growing music business.
As enticing to Nashville’s artists was the success AFTRA had in negotiating for residual payments to everyone with replayed performances, including commercials, that would include the ability to track airplay of music.
And so it was that in the anti-union State of Tennessee and the union-averse business community of Nashville, volunteers worked hard to recruit musicians, songwriters and vocalists into AFTRA. One of those volunteers working hard to grow the ranks of Nashville’s AFTRA chapter was Diane Vanette.
