by Mary Landolfi

Presidential Candiate of Concerned Musicians of Local 802

How easily the unity that should preside in a union can go astray. That’s the hard lesson members of Local 802 have learned in the past year. Somehow, though, we have to put this behind us and begin to work for our common future. I pledge that, if I am elected, I will work positively with the members of the new administration and do my best to provide constructive leadership. Here are a few of my ideas:

1. We need to restructure our union staff. Only three years ago, the last administration came to the membership and asked for raises in yearly dues and a raise of one-half percent on work dues. This was done, I believe, not only out of necessity but also so that the current administration would have the advantage of working from a stable economic base. Unfortunately, that stable economic base has not been long-lived; there is a significant deficit projected for next year which the next administration will have to correct. I believe we must make a two-part response. We must first ask the supervisor of each department to identify savings that can be achieved; then those saving must be diverted into a newly reconstituted organizing department. The only salvation from continual dues increases is for Local 802 to go after non-union employment that undermines the wage and benefit standards of our members, particularly in fields, like club dates that are populated by employers that come and go, but also in more stable fields like concerts and theater.

2. At the same time the first item is being undertaken, we must begin a search for a new Organizing Director who, based upon his/her experience, can bring a more aggressive approach to organizing at Local 802. This person should receive the full support of the officers and board in choosing new employees to fill vacancies in that department and in revamping the activities of all our current organizers so that Local 802 can maximize our efforts in new organizing.

3. The union must begin to take a more disciplined approach to negotiating and grievance handling. By this, I most emphatically do not mean that the focus should be taken off support for rank-and-file committees; we must empower the committees by obtaining more creative legal advice. In addition to that initiative, we must prepare negotiations sufficiently in advance so that we know our allies are behind us before the crunch; we must be clear about our objectives and, most importantly, our attorneys must be ready to reduce agreements to writing immediately upon settlement. The pattern of losses through loose ends must be broken. It is not acceptable to find that the Mostly Mozart season is over while its agreement is still not ready to be ratified, or that Local 802 members wait for a management lawyer to write language resolving the problems with “Woman in White” on Broadway. Currently there are at least three unresolved issues in regard to minimums on Broadway (“Woman in White,” “Drowsy Chaperone” and “Hot Feet”) and no path to resolution has been outlined to the board. This laxity in resolving legal issues sends a dangerous message to employers at any time, but even more so when negotiations for a new agreement are about to begin.

4. We also need to undertake a search for a public relations/political action director and that person must have much more involvement with elected committees and the rank-and-file. We need to make sure that there is a plan to efficiently use the funds set aside for public relations rather than allow those funds to be used in an unfocused, ad hoc manner. We also need those members who are interested in politics to become involved on behalf of our union. We have good relationships with a number of legislators; we need those relationships to be made stronger and similar relationships to be developed with other legislators. In order to accomplish both these goals, I would make the creation of rank-and-file committees in both public relations and political action part of the job description of the new PR/PA Director. It is no longer enough to have this person act as a liaison with outside public relations consultants or to settle for periodic interviews with politicians when the election cycle dictates. We must be in a position to lobby for legislation that we need to protect the livelihoods of our members.

Finally, the most important task before us is to prepare for future negotiations, particularly Broadway in 2007 and looking forward to 2013 when the ban on discussion of minimums will expire. Our focus must be two-fold – the near-term fight over this year’s agreement, which will likely center around benefits since the minimums are off-limits and also the far-term challenge to limit replication of instruments that enables producers to attack minimums. In order to prevail both near and far-term we must repair our relations with other unions, which have certainly been tarnished by irresponsible allegations that the president of Local 1 is a management surrogate. In the long term, moreover, we must realize that there is no one sentence of contract language that will save our profession; it will take a coordinated battle on many fronts to preserve live music for future generations. That means fighting for many things – support for live music from audiences as a result of a carefully-crafted public relations message; assistance from friendly legislators in the form of funding for the arts and/or “truth in advertising” legislation to reveal the presence of synthesized replacement of live performers (and to shame producers into reducing their use of it); assistance from and for other unions and, ultimately, strategic partnerships and mergers, if that is necessary, to increase our bargaining leverage. We must take on this fight. Let us begin with the election and clarify the direction the membership wishes to take and then let us fight together once again against our common enemies.