US Election 2024

August 1, 2024

IM  -  

Right-Wing Plans Are a Threat to Musicians’ Economic Future

Now, more than ever, it is important to make our voices heard, protect our livelihoods, and support the efforts of our union colleagues across the country when voting in the upcoming election. This is the year for professional musicians to vote to preserve the economic advances and focus on workers’ rights the current administration has achieved during the past 3 1/2 years.

As musicians, we have enjoyed a period of stability and economic growth during the Biden-Harris administration, with standout accomplishments like providing restorative funding for multiemployer pension plans through the American Rescue Plan, empowering the NLRB, preserving arts funding, expanding affordable health care, rebuilding the country’s infrastructure, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, initiating student debt relief, and making historic investments in combating climate change.

The Biden-Harris administration has prioritized appointing pro-union officials to key positions at labor agencies, such as the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), to act in the best interest of workers. This focus on pro-union appointments contrasts sharply with the previous Republican administration’s hardened anti-union approach.

Without exception, the lives of working Americans are greatly improved when the executive and legislative branches of government are led by progressive Democrats. In contrast, the litany of economic abuses from the preceding administration, and others like it, are astonishing.

Significantly for musicians, the previous Republican administration’s “tax reform” deprived musician-employees of the ability to claim tax deductions for their professional employee expenses. This cannot be rectified until both the White House and Congress are controlled by our pro-union allies.

The prospect of a right-wing government would once again target American workers and diminish the influence and power of organized labor. Despite the popularity of unions, with a record number of Americans believing they should have greater influence over the economy, there is no indication that a Republican-led administration would ease its regressive stance on collective bargaining.

During the previous Republican administration, three executive orders were signed into law that undermined federal unions and scaled back the rights of government employees. These orders faced legal challenges, but the administration persisted by appointing anti-worker officials who proceeded to rewrite union contracts to further the administration’s objectives. While significant budget cuts would necessitate an act of Congress, Republicans have successfully weakened labor agencies and the government through funding cuts and hiring freezes.

We’ve seen how the previous administration, aided by a Republican-controlled Congress, was openly hostile toward unions and proved it through administrative action. Anti-union officials were placed in critical roles within labor agencies and actively worked to dismantle basic workplace protections. The NLRB, populated by pro-business, anti-worker board members, made it more difficult for workers to win union elections. The conservative majority on the Supreme Court stood public-sector workers on their heads, eviscerating their union strength by obliterating the union shop.

The presidential playbook Project 2025, the brainchild of far-right conservatism, details with alarming surgical precision how a fundamentalist government will reverse 50 years of social progress in the US. Since 2016, top members of the Republican Party have been tied to the Heritage Foundation, the conservative thinktank behind the plan. Chief among its recommendations is the immediate dismissal of pro-labor NLRB appointees and cutting labor agency budgets “to the low end of the historical average.” In addition, their blueprint calls for abolishing the Department of Education, another move the Republicans are keen on delivering.

We are already seeing challenges like the recently defeated amendment from Representative Brecheen (R-OK) aiming to cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) by $48 million. And Project 2025 proposed scrapping the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a key revenue source for PBS and National Public Radio stations.

The forces of the right are also targeting the accreditation process in higher education with calls “to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical left.” Singling out curricula at universities and promising to impose standards of so-called “American values” threatens academic freedom and summons the ghost of the McCarthy era, when academics were among those called to Capitol Hill for questioning about anti-American activities.

Past history unambiguously shows us that if the 45th president is allowed to become the 47th president, the progress musicians and all workers have gained in the last 3 1/2 years will be stripped away and cast onto the political ash heap. We all owe it to the next generation of musicians to prepare a better future for them and their children.

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