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We’re in the middle of a busy union summer at Local 802 and we have a lot of news to report, including a building update, a major contract tentative agreement, a report on our recent contract negotiations, a political update and a report on the AFM convention.

AFM CONVENTION & NEGOTIATIONS ROUNDUP

We recently came back from the AFM’s triennial convention, where AFM president Tino Gagliardi was re-elected by acclamation. (The other officer results can be found on the convention page here.) Local 802 was represented by our delegates Karen Fisher, Sarah Haines, Bud Burridge, Diva Goodfriend-Koven, Martha Hyde and Morris Kainuma. There were many technical resolutions that passed, and a summary of the convention appears in the July issue of the International Musician. However, I want to flag one resolution here: the convention passed an extremely modest dues increase of $4 per year per member over the next three years, for a total of $12. All of this additional dues income will go directly to the AFM, not Local 802, and will be used partly to invest in union organizing and communications, which Local 802 benefits from immensely.

I’m also happy to report that Local 802 member Jay Julio was honored at the convention with the 2026 AFM Charles McDaniel Youth Award given for “accomplishments as a young, upcoming musician in their local and throughout their community.” This prestigious prize is one of the AFM’s diversity awards and is only bestowed once every three years at each AFM convention. Jay is the first-ever Local 802 member to win this award. Unfortunately, Jay wasn’t able to attend the convention, so Recording Vice President Sarah Haines accepted the award on their behalf. Read our cover interview with Jay in this issue of Allegro here.

The convention also featured an organizing video and the results of an AFM membership survey that reinforced the fact that organizing is a top priority of AFM members. At a local level, we are happy to announce that we’ve hired Sally Weathers as our new Field Services Director, who will also help oversee our organizing efforts. Sally is a prominent NYC worker advocate whose career spans crucial sectors of the city’s labor and economic justice movements. She’s served as an organizer and representative with the Hotel Trades Council, working directly on the ground to help hospitality staff secure union contracts, navigate workplace grievances and build collective bargaining power. Demonstrating a continuous commitment to protecting frontline and immigrant workers, she transitioned to grassroots advocacy as the lead organizer at the Street Vendor Project. In that capacity, she helped champion structural reforms for thousands of street vendors and independent sole proprietors across the five boroughs, spearheading coalition campaigns that targeted vendor licensing reform, fought commercial displacement, and reduced unfair regulatory and criminal liabilities for local small businesses. Welcome, Sally!

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Finally, to update you on our current contract negotiations, we’re happy to announce a tentative agreement with the Met Associates, and a newly-ratified contract with 54 Below, which was a long time coming but worth the wait! The Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center has also reached an agreement, which is discussed in Financial Vice President Karen Fisher’s column.

We congratulate all of the aforementioned negotiating committees and their bargaining units. The Met Associates in particular faced a challenging uphill battle given the financial challenges facing their employer in recent months. In a strong display of solidarity, the committee worked together with their bargaining unit and the regular orchestra members to coordinate a show of strength for management by wearing their Met Orchestra shirts on stage and outside of Carnegie Hall at a concert in June. Working with Local 802, they quickly mobilized contract action team leaders to communicate with their peers and were able to deliver a strong message of support going into our final negotiation on July 13 with a petition delivered in person and online before we began for the day.

I want to commend the leadership and solidarity that was on display through these organizing activities. As a result of this hard work and leadership, management accepted our final offer that ensured the Met Associates kept pace with the wage increases seen by other bargaining units while remaining on the path towards closing the larger wage parity gap. This marks yet another public example of what we are capable of winning when we stick together as one union.

We’re also in various stages of talks with the following ensembles and venues:

• Met orchestra
• Met title callers
• Perlman Performing Arts Center
• NYC Ballet
• Roundabout Theatre Company

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POLITICAL UPDATE

The New York primary took place on June 23. Local 802 made two winning endorsements in contested races: Brad Lander for Congress (district 10) and Carl Wilson for City Council (district 3). We congratulate all who ran and all who won! Now let’s get to work protecting NYC’s musicians, strengthening our cultural economy, and keeping the arts thriving. We’ve also made an early endorsement of Gov. Kathy Hochul for the general election in the fall.

On a related note, we’ve been participating in a number of multi-union coalitions with the Mayor’s Office on Economic Justice issues, led by Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su, who was President Biden’s former Secretary of Labor. We’re in the process of working with NYC agency commissioners to streamline the contract filing process for musicians working at city-funded events, making sure they’re  paid properly as employees and at professional rates. 

None of this would be possible without the attention of a worker-focused administration in City Hall. In order to accomplish this goal and maintain a powerful political presence, we ask that members of Local 802 contribute to our political action fund, called TEMPO802. To donate, start here.

Let me close this section by mentioning three political victories:

• I want to uplift that New York State recently awarded $2 million to the Met Opera, thanks in part to our members’ lobbying efforts. (The Met Opera management actually publicly thanked its unions, including Local 802, for this win!)
• I also want to celebrate the two-year rent freeze voted on by the Rent Guidelines Board for rent stabilized apartments. This will seriously help our members.  We must give credit where credit is due: earlier this year, Mayor Mamdani reconstructed the board by appointing six new members (including a new Chair, Chantella Mitchell) to fill vacant seats and expiring terms. This newly appointed majority aligned directly with his housing agenda. Local 802 endorsed Mayor Mamdani and continues to support him.
• Finally, it’s worth mentioning that the city’s upcoming budget includes a historic $323.8 million for culture — the highest-ever appropriation of funding for arts and culture in NYC! 

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PRIDE!

Local 802 marched in the NYC Pride Parade this year for the first time as a union, marching alongside Actors’ Equity. We had great participation from our members and had a colorful float with our rainbow logo. As you can see from our social media and from the photo above, we featured a DJ on our float – and for the first time were able to include a DJ on a Local 802 union contract. Organizing DJ’s on AFM union contracts was actually approved three years ago at the 2023 AFM convention. It’s time to bring more DJ’s into the Local 802 union fold! Thank you to everyone who showed up for Pride – let’s do it again next year, even stronger!

NEW YORK MUSIC MONTH

As reported in last month’s Allegro, I gave a talk at New York Music Month on June 3 at NYU. The presentation was focused on how the work of 802 can help indie musicians, and I talked about the newly-formed Freelance Musicians Association player conference of the AFM, which is also mentioned in Recording Vice President Sarah Haines’ report in Allegro here. New York Music Month is a production of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, and we look forward to continuing to work with MOME and forming relationships with similar organizations and agencies.

BUILDING UPDATE

The following report on the Local 802 building is based on what I delivered at the June 24 membership meeting. We will announce a more in-depth discussion later this August once we have a bit more information.

Here’s where we stand:

• The latest estimate is that the Local 802 building renovation will cost around $9 million. This is not firm, but we have to start with that estimate to evaluate the situation.
• It’s within the realm of possibility to borrow that kind of money and, in the process, turn the building into a revenue-generating asset that will advance the Local’s financial position in the long term. But we can’t do that without renting out floors 4, 5 and 6 to a tenant.
• Right now, our full focus is on finding that tenant. We have been speaking to the Central Labor Council and other labor-adjacent organizations to see who is looking for space.
• This is a difficult situation to be in because it seems that the only responsible financial decision to make if we can’t find a committed tenant and reasonable financing is to sell the building.
• If you know of any other labor organizations that need rental space in midtown, preferably around 14,000 square feet, please let us know.

My hope is to save the building in a fiscally responsible manner. Rest assured that working on this situation is a top priority and we will continue to keep the members in the loop. Please join us once our meeting is scheduled later this summer for a firmer update.

While it won’t be published in time for this edition of Allegro, the Executive Board recently passed a motion that codifies our plan for next steps in determining whether we keep the building or take steps towards seeking authorization from the membership to pursue a sale. As I said at the June 25 membership meeting, we cannot sell the building without your permission. Rest assured you will be kept in the loop.

Have a great summer, and I’ll report to you next in Allegro in our September issue. In the meantime, look for social media updates on any fast-developing situations, and save the date for our October membership meeting: Wednesday, Oct. 7.