I’m really happy to report that 802’s Organizing Department is finally up and running again with the addition of our Field Services Director Sally Weathers, and we’re already seeing positive momentum in this space. Sally and I have been working closely to identify what we need to do as an organization in order to both recapture the work that we used to have under agreements that have fallen off the radar, as well as unionizing new gigs.

If Sally calls you, please pick up the phone. She’s calling you for a very good reason, and we want to hear from you about what’s been going on that maybe isn’t being covered, that you think should be or could be covered. (You can also report nonunion gigs anonymously to the Local 802 hotline at www.local802afm.org/hotline.)

It’s going to be crucial to have as much participation as possible in these new endeavors because we do need to recapture some work that has been lost as well as bringing new things under contract and we have some good ideas that are just starting to manifest.

I’m proud to say that we continue to get really great single engagement contracts coming in recently, especially with major artists. The Harry Styles residency at Madison Square Garden was completely covered by a 802 contract. Hayley Williams played a show at Forest Hills Stadium that was covered (our TikTok post covering this victory got almost 20,000 views). I’m sure some of you read my article in Allegro about the fight to make sure Josh Groban was following his agreement, but we got there in the end. Finally, as Dan Point writes in his president’s report this month, we were able to get a recent Carnegie Hall show under contract which led to musicians getting paid over $600 more per person than they were originally offered, plus benefits.

What we really need from you is simple: if you get called for a gig, especially at a major venue or with a major artist, please let us know. We have mechanisms by which we can get your gigs covered, but we have to know that they’re happening. We have to know that we have people on those gigs who can talk to us and give us the information we need in order to push the right levers to make the gig union. And obviously the more time we have to do that, the better off we’ll be. It’s hard to get something covered in just a couple of days, but it’s possible. So please, even if you think it’s not possible or you don’t want to rock the boat, your confidentiality is important to us. I will never expose you to your employer if you give us a call to say, “Please, can we help get this under contract?” Your confidentiality is really important and I take that seriously.

The same goes for nonunion recording sessions. There’s a lot of things happening out there that could be covered and people just don’t want to deal with the paperwork. But part of our job is also to help employers understand what’s actually in those contracts and why it’s important for them to be signing them. We cannot find this stuff without your help.

Moving on, I’m really proud to report that the Winter Jazzfest agreement has been ratified for a two-year term, and musicians received their first increases in two years at $25 per year, which was very exciting. They were very adamant that they wanted to get to this certain number, and we finally achieved that for them. So that was a very big win for that group of musicians.

Other ongoing negotiations include the club date agreement and Roundabout Theatre company, and we will begin negotiating the hotels agreement this month.

We also just learned that the Big Apple Circus is planning to have a season, which is very exciting because it was a little bit up in the air for a little while, and so we have just begun bargaining for that.

In addition, we presented our first new member orientation in a while after we overhauled the format to meet current members’ needs. The first one went really well, and we received good member feedback on that. We’re planning to do them quarterly now instead of doing them every six months, to try and get a little bit more contact with our new members and really make sure that we’re inviting people in and welcoming them when they join. If you’re a new member and haven’t attended an orientation yet, please send an e-mail to our Communications Director Mikael Elsila to make sure you’re on the next invitation list.

We also did our first Know Your Rights training with Wages Argott at the AFM, which was a great success. It was an in-person small group meeting with members from different disciplines throughout 802 and a couple of non-members as well, as this is a way to bring in new people who don’t necessarily work under contracts, but could, or maybe don’t know what it means to work under contract. It was a great way to engage with folks with a wide group of experiences and have some real conversations about what the working world looks like right now. We’re hoping to do at least two or three more of those before the end of the year. And so if you have anyone who might be interested in that, or if you yourself are interested in that, please reach out to us. It’s meant to be a guided open discussion: a forum for people to ruminate on what it means to be a union musician and also how to develop your own organizing chops and confidence as a person who can organize in your own workspaces. Please keep an eye out for more of those coming up.

Lastly, if you have any colleagues who haven’t joined Local 802 yet, we are offering a new member special: pay no initiation fee through Dec. 31. Join at www.local802afm.org/join.

As always, you can reach me at shaines@local802afm.org.