Email to Membership: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 (4:05 PM)

During the COVID-19 outbreak, we are posting every all-member email regarding the crisis to the site to ensure all 802 members see these communications. Please note, to avoid redundancy, we stripped the parts of these emails that remind members to check this very page for updates.

Email sent Wednesday, March 25, 2020, 4:05 PM

Subject Line- Take Action: Ask NYS to Renew the COBRA Subsidy Program

 

We hope this email finds you and your family safe and healthy. We are working every day to advocate for economic relief for musicians and provide resources for our members at this difficult time.

As you all know, due to the widespread cancellation of our work, many musicians will require government assistance to stay on 802 healthcare. NYC entertainment unions are united in our demand that New York extend the COBRA subsidy healthcare program. This program, which pays 50% of monthly COBRA premiums for entertainment union members for 12 months, has kept over 1,150 entertainment workers on their healthcare over the past decade. We must ensure it does not expire at this critical time.

Take action today! Call and write our elected officials and let them know to renew the COBRA subsidy healthcare program. Scroll to the bottom of this email for suggested email and phone scripts.

Stay home and stay healthy! Together we can flatten the curve and get through this difficult time as a community.

In solidarity,

President Adam Krauthamer

SAMPLE EMAIL SCRIPT:

Dear [Elected Official],

My name is ___. I am a Local 802 AFM union musician writing to request that New York state renew its COBRA subsidy healthcare program. For union members like me, who have lost all our work due to the coronavirus, this program is critical to keeping me on my health plan.

With theaters, film and TV productions, recording studios, and music venues shuttered, our entire industry is in crisis. Musicians and our entertainment worker colleagues have been sent home without knowing when our workplaces will reopen.

Thank you for reading my message; I ask that you work with Local 802 AFM to renew this critical program.

In solidarity,

[Name]

SAMPLE PHONE SCRIPT:

My name is [name] and I am a Local 802 AFM union musician calling to ask [elected official] to renew the COBRA subsidy healthcare program. Due to the coronavirus, musicians and other entertainment workers are out of work and have no idea when our workplaces will reopen. Without this critical health subsidy, many of us will lose our union healthcare. Please ensure that this valuable COBRA subsidy does not expire. Thank you!