VOTE CONCERNED MUSICIANS
The votes of Club Date Musicians can help assure that Local 802 pays more attention to the Club Date Field.
Nearly 300 of our members earn a substantial portion of their income from Club Date work, especially “society work” in Manhattan, Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey, as well as work in the Jewish Orthodox field. The Single Engagement Club Date field must again become the focus of our union’s organizing and enforcement efforts.
Under President David Lennon the union lost its entire Organizing Department just as it was turning its focus to the Club Date Field. Lennon and the current Executive Board majority have threatened to cut the staff that services the club date field.
Concerned Musicians will fight to keep that staff and to rebuild an Organizing Department that will increase our strength in the club date field. Recording Vice-President Bill Dennison and the union’s Single Engagement staff developed new individual and member/leader contracts, which allow members to obtain health and pension benefits from more of their work.
THE 2003 CONTRACT
The two current Executive Board members, who work sporadically on Club Dates and now criticize the 2003 Club Date Agreement, both joined a unanimous Executive Board in ratifying that agreement. These two Members Party politicians also were active members of the Club Date Committee that participated in negotiating the agreement.
Since settlement of the 2003 Club Date Contract, one large office has come to dominate the secular club date field. While it is a union office, further progress depends upon increasing union density overall. The first step is to pick up the pieces of the splintered Steven Scott office. The union has successfully brought legal action that has already found that these Scott band leaders have a continuing obligation under the current contract. They must and will be brought back under union agreements through this legal action and/or pressure tactics. The next step is an organizing campaign targeting the nonunion competition.
ORGANIZING
The nonunion offices working in prominent New York and Long Island venues must be organized. Concerned Musicians believe this can be done with an ongoing campaign to educate the younger musicians entering this field about the long term benefits of working union along with an “area standards campaign” that puts pressure on any office that is not meeting at least union standards of wage, health and pension benefit payments. Public pressure can be put on these employers at their engagements, through the venues in which they perform and at showcases and other sales events.
A similar phenomenon is taking place in the Jewish Orthodox field, with small nonunion employers undercutting union standards. That must and can be stopped through publicity in community media and by creating public pressure. Concerned Musicians is committed to such an organizing campaign in the club date field.
HEALTH BENEFITS
One of the critical problems facing all of our members working in the club date field is health insurance. The Local 802 Health Benefits Plan faces a funding crisis that has put additional burdens on the musician. The solution has to be larger contributions from employers. The current Club Date Agreement allows us to increase employer contributions to a level that will nearly match the recent increases in the health plan’s eligibility level. It is still however, going to be harder for club date musicians to obtain coverage and handle the new member premium. Concerned Musicians is dedicated to the fight to obtain the necessary employer contributions to take these new burdens off the musicians. We are also dedicated to the fight for a national health care plan that is the only lasting solution to this crisis.
PLANNING FOR 2008
The 2003 Club Date Agreement came after difficult negotiations and a threatened strike. It is not too early to start planning for our next negotiation in 2008. Improving the Single Engagement contract will be accomplished through organizing, outreach to younger musicians and careful planning. That planning must include an active rank-and-file club date committee that can help the union chart the plans and strategy needed to win a fair contract. Concerned Musicians of Local 802 is pledged to this effort. The active involvement of working rank-and-file club date musicians on our slate of candidates is proof of our commitment to this effort.
Lennon and his Vice-Presidential Candidate Gagliardi have offered no plans for and shown no interest in the club date field. Gagliardi has been an uncritical supporter of Lennon, even refusing to hold him accountable for his misuse of your dues money. That’s not the kind of officer needed by Club Date musicians.
FOR EXPERIENCE, HONESTY AND TRUST
VOTE CONCERNED MUSICIANS of Local 802