Organizing is About Power
Union organizing comes down to one simple concept: building power for you and your co-workers. There are constant changes happening in any workplace; pay goes up and down, people get hired and fired, benefits are won and lost. Sometimes these changes benefit the worker, and can change their life for the better. Sometimes they benefit management to the serious detriment of the worker. How is it decided which side wins out? Power. When workers are talking with one another, building trust, recognizing common goals, and willing to take risks for one another, they’re organizing. Organizing builds the kind of power necessary to have the fairness, dignity, and respect in the workplace required to live the lives we envision for ourselves.
I Want to Organize, But How?
Talk to each other! Check in with your bandmates, musician friends, or fellow freelancers you just met at a gig. See how things are going for them and find out what they’d like to change. Then, get in touch! Local 6 members are already working to improve our lives and our scene. But for things to change, we need you! We are strongest when we work together, and it’s going to take all of us. Your lead organizer can help plug you into the right trainings, campaigns, and committees to start building with one another today.
Active Campaigns
No Play for No Pay
When Bay Area freelance musicians look to confront the many challenges of the current music industry, it becomes obvious that something very important is missing: solidarity. When we fail to realize and act upon our collective interests, it creates a race to the bottom. As a result, musicians struggle to make a living while fighting for the fewer and fewer gigs that respect our time and skill. If we want a strong music scene, we need to work together to ensure that every gig provides the pay, working conditions, and dignity that we deserve.
As a first step, we’ve created a simple but powerful pledge for all freelance musicians to take: I will not play for free. This will provide a foundation from which we can begin to raise standards to where they should be. You can find the pledge here: No Play For No Pay – Action Network
You can help by spreading the word to your bandmates and musician friends. If you have any questions or want to get more involved with the campaign, reach out to your Local 6 Organizer here:
Email: kevin@afm6.org Phone: 628-290-3141
Fair Play Initiative
Professional musicians in the Bay Area are paid on average less than they were in 1985, while all costs of living have skyrocketed. If live music and the livelihoods that come with it are to survive, this must change. As a starting point, we’re calling on Bay Area cities to pass a Prevailing Wage ordinance that would institute a pay “floor” for all city funded events, series, festivals, etc that feature live music. This would not set a cap on pay, but create a fair minimum that could help sustain musicians in one of the most expensive cities in the world. To get involved, reach out to your Local 6 Organizer here:
Email: kevin@afm6.org Phone: 628-290-3141