Tag Archives: committee

orchestra committee
Symphonic Services Division

What to Expect If You Are Elected to the Orchestra Committee

by Jane Owen, AFM Symphonic Services Division Negotiator

The best experiences I have as an AFM negotiator are getting to meet and work with the musicians who are part of their organization’s orchestra committee. These orchestra members, elected by their colleagues, take on the responsibilities of representing fellow musicians in the day-to-day business of performing in an orchestra, with all the attention to detail and artistic excellence that job entails. They are resourceful, hard-working, creative, and caring individuals who are often the unsung heroes dealing with the challenges of ongoing contract administration.

The orchestra committee acts as the representative of the AFM and your local in the workplace. For an orchestra that has no union steward, committee members are often the only representatives present when rehearsals and concerts are happening. The committee is part of the union team (consisting of the orchestra committee, the union steward, and local officers) responsible for the administration of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in the workplace. In a typical season, as an orchestra committee member, you can expect to deal with questions about and violations of your CBA, both major and minor. Many of these questions will come to you from the musicians. It is important that every musician in your orchestra knows who the committee members are and how to reach them.

Organizing the orchestra committee is the first step. As soon as the committee is chosen, the chair, secretary, and treasurer should be decided upon among the committee members. All the members of the committee should have a copy of their orchestra’s musicians’ association by-laws, as well as the current CBA, and a roster of all the members of the orchestra who are in the bargaining unit. Familiarize yourselves with the deadlines for dues, which need to be paid to the respective orchestra conferences (International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians, Organization of Canadian Symphony Musicians, or Regional Orchestra Players Association), and strike funds, if applicable. Is the orchestra committee responsible for holding elections for other musician committees—audition committees, peer review committees, players’ conference representatives, or board representatives? If so, what are those deadlines?

Now the real work begins! You may find yourself dealing with day-to-day problems of setup, lighting, temperature, or other working conditions. On the other end of the spectrum, you may be handling more long-term issues of discipline, dismissal proceedings, or harassment in the workplace. Management will also come to the orchestra committee with questions about how to interpret articles of the CBA, items not covered by the CBA, and approval for circumstances that may go against the CBA. Some issues can be handled quickly, on-site by the orchestra committee chair or another committee member, if the chair is not present. Others may require consultation and decisions by the entire committee. It is critical to involve the local in matters concerning discipline or dismissal or where management is asking for a waiver of CBA provisions. These can implicate the union’s duty of fair representation. Questions concerning electronic media will likely require the involvement of, not only the local, but the Federation as well—including a call to AFM Symphonic Electronic Media Director Debbie Newmark.

More orchestras are realizing that musician interaction with audience members and members of the community at-large are essential for continuing success for our organizations. Committee members can be helpful in encouraging this interaction through community activities, meet-and-greet opportunities for audience members, social media posts, and newsletters sent to our interested fans.

Where you do not have a separate negotiating committee, preparations for negotiations and the negotiations themselves are the responsibility of the orchestra committee. In the years leading up to a negotiation, the committee should keep record of situations that have arisen during the term of their current CBA, resolutions of those situations, and applicable article numbers. If you have been elected to a committee that will be negotiating, you will likely spend a lot of time doing preparation during the last season of your CBA preceding the negotiation. Surveys of the musicians, research into other CBAs and orchestras, and committee meetings to come up with a union proposal will be necessary. Negotiation committee members will need to be present for negotiation meetings, which can go on for hours, over several days, weeks, or months.

Participation in the orchestra committee and/or negotiating committee is, in short, a serious commitment of time and energy. It is a commitment to your fellow musicians, to your profession, to your local, and to the AFM as a whole. It can be the most annoying, frustrating, time-consuming, and, in the end, the most rewarding, service you do for your fellow musicians.

nightlight office
Executive Board Members, Officer Columns

Nightlife Office and Advisory Committee

by Tino Gagliardi, AFM International Executive Board Member and President of Local 802 (New York City)

Across this country, musicians are playing in bars, clubs, restaurants, hotels, and other performance spaces in an effort to hone their craft, share their artistry, and make a living. American art, performance, and music have been born, bred, raised, and developed in the nightlife establishments of our cities. These musicians play an outsized role in shaping the cultural heritage of our nation. As a result, the nightlife that drives municipal economies and our nation’s culture, owes a great deal to the musicians and performers of our nightlife industry. Yet, does our society adequately support those individuals who make it vibrant and strong? No.

In New York City we are working on changing that. New York City Council Member Rafael Espinal (Democrat, District 37) recognizes the role that the city’s nightlife industry plays in its economy and began working on legislation that would create an Office of Nightlife and Nightlife Taskforce to address issues frequently faced by nightlife establishments and their communities.

Though this office was originally conceived as a combination industry liaison and issue resolution facilitator between the city, small businesses, and communities, we at Local 802, saw this as an opportunity to provide support for a frequently ignored community of workers that has traditionally been exploited, discriminated against, and undersupported.

With the council member’s support and partnership, we were able to expand the original scope of the office and taskforce, advocating for language in the legislation that would commit the office to addressing workforce issues like wage theft and misclassification, and require them to make policy recommendations that would benefit performers and workers by addressing some of the industry’s unique issues. On August 24, the bill passed. We are closer to the creation of an Office of Nightlife than ever before.

Advocates and performers who live and work in the nightlife scenes of other cities should pay attention—the Office of Nightlife could be worth replicating.

This Office of Nightlife could provide a new type of government partner for performer advocates to work with to address issues that countless musicians face on a nightly basis: exploitation, misclassification, pay-to-play schemes, and more. The challenge is providing the tools with which the office can effectively and efficiently do its job.

There are many agencies and offices that regulate small businesses and mandate specific employment practices and safety requirements. However, the tools available to these agencies often do not apply to the unique nightlife industry or are ineffective in addressing common business practices at bars, restaurants, clubs, and hotels. How do we mandate fair employment at a performance space where it is arguable who the employer legally is? This is just one example of how complicated the nightlife industry is.

If this office is to be impactful, and if other municipalities are to follow New York City’s example, the Nightlife Office must work with locally elected community leaders and administration to develop regulatory mechanisms that empower the director to protect performers who are otherwise unsupported and unprotected. Without impactful regulatory and enforcement frameworks, the city will lack the ability to prevent pay-to-play and unfair employment practices, and will be unable to help us in our work to ensure that all musicians have the opportunity to make a fair living that dignifies the contributions they make to our common cultural heritage.

Luckily, New York City is the perfect test case for such an office. Mayor Bill de Blasio has shown that he understands that the city’s nightlife is an important part of our economy. As a former consumer affairs commissioner, Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment Commissioner Julie Menin has experience developing both consumer and worker protections. Council member Espinal has shown sensitivity and appreciation of the challenges that workers and performers face.

These leaders must be applauded for their advocacy and vision. We are extremely hopeful that this office will soon play an important role in advocating for musicians. We will work closely with these leaders and this office to support our union’s agenda—raising the wage floor for musicians and ensuring that New York City remains a place where musicians are celebrated and where performers can live, work, and raise a family. This work is important, not just for New Yorkers, but for musicians across the US.

Recent News

New York Creates Fast Food Wage Board

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has created a Fast Food Wage Board to investigate and make recommendations on an increase in the minimum wage for the fast food industry. The board is set to hold four public hearings in June before it issues its recommendations this summer. The recommendations will be subject to approval of Cuomo’s labor commissioner and cannot be blocked by legislature.

According to the Associated Press, the New York State Restaurant Association is critical of the panel. Association President and CEO Melissa Fleischut says Friday that she believes Cuomo has already decided to increase the minimum wage for fast-food workers and that the wage board process is just a formality.

“The minimum wage is supposed to be a wage that allows people who work full-time to earn a decent living and provide for their family—but for too many fast-food workers, that is simply not the case,” says Cuomo. “We must raise the minimum wage to restore that promise of opportunity and help people across the state move beyond poverty. With this Wage Board, New York is stepping up for fast food workers, and we are going to challenge every state in the nation to follow our lead in doing what is right and what is fair.”