Musicians who perform at 54 Below recently ratified their latest contract, with guaranteed raises and other union benefits.

As you’ve heard, we attended the Eastern Conference and the AFM Convention in Ottawa, Canada earlier this summer, and as a first time convention delegate it was an extremely interesting process. (I say that with the caveat that I am a nerd about this stuff.) I was appointed to the Law Committee, whose task is to go through many of the policy-focused bylaw amendments that are set to go to the floor of the convention, and to determine what to do with them as far as recommending them favorably, unfavorably, amending them, or referring them directly to the IEB for further review. We worked on 20 of the 47 resolutions and spent many hours, sometimes into the early hours of the morning, hearing testimony from the delegates on their feelings around the various resolutions and recommendations. The result was something that felt like a very democratic (though laborious) process, and I’m proud of the work that was done there.

The theme that ran through most of the convention was organizing, which was equal parts exciting, energizing, and intimidating. We have quite the mountain to climb when it comes to getting new work and new types of work organized, but as long as we can all be committed to the challenge, I think the fight will be worth it. AI was another theme on everyone’s mind, both as a threat and as a way to encourage stronger organizing campaigns. Filing recording contracts is so important in this age of AI theft. Please remember that there are many different contract options available to folks who are doing recording work. When the contracts are filed, whether for a Single Song Overdub, a Limited Pressing, A Joint Venture Agreement, or a full SRLA recording session, it becomes far easier to track who played on various recordings. With the idea of Consent, Credit and Compensation coming into the forefront of our fight against the theft that is with Generative AI training models, we will be far better prepared to protect the work of musicians when we have records of that work happening, and agreements in place already to protect that work.

Over the conference and convention, AFM staff presented different tools and ideas for effective organizing and member outreach.  As a result, I am excited to announce that we have begun planning to do a “Know Your Rights” training for any interested musicians, both member and non-member alike. This will be a training that covers the rights of musicians who may not be working under a Collective Bargaining Agreement, but perhaps at a bar gig or in a one-off band. We have also begun discussions around forming a New York Freelance Organizing Committee. This comes after conversations with The AFM’s newest player’s conference, the Freelance Musicians Association, which is a conference focusing on addressing the needs of our many freelancers and folks who are not working under collective bargaining agreements, with the aim of raising the standard for all working musicians. I spoke to members of this committee at the convention and I’m really excited by their energy around organizing. If you want to drop in on one of their monthly meetings and see what they are all about, they meet the first Wednesday of every month at 5PM, and their website is https://afmfreelance.org/

As far as what’s going on at home, I’m very proud to report that after over a decade of musicians working under old rates, the 54 Below contract has finally been completed and ratified by the bargaining unit. This agreement raises rates significantly and now includes health payments for everyone working at 54 Below, not just for the higher-budget-tiered shows. Many thanks to the committee and to business rep Pete Voccola for really sticking it out with this very drawn out process. In addition to that, we have met with the committees and will be beginning negotiations for the Club Date signatory agreement as well as the Big Apple Circus later this summer.