Dear Colleagues,

We are The MEMBERS Party, a pro-union activist group working to bring integrity, competence, democracy and common sense to our Local (802) and to the American Federation of Musicians.

Organized in 1980, we have had a profound effect on virtually every aspect of our Local’s affairs. Among our accomplishments have been: 802’s first viable strike fund, paid-up ownership of its own mid-town Manhattan building, a union-wide rank-and-file committee system, Executive and Trial Boards comprised of active professional musicians and a Union-financed legal services fund through which the Local helps qualified bargaining units pay for outside legal counsel during contract negotiations.

We have had less influence over the AFM’s functions although our two most recent past presidents have been IEB members and have played indispensable roles in negotiations between the AFM and the Recording Musicians Association in addressing the Federation’s recent fiscal crises. Unfortunately there are presently no MEMBERS Party officers on the IEB and only 4 in the current 802 Administration. As a result, our direct influence on union policy is greatly limited and many of our democratic advancements at Local 802 have been eroded.

If professional musicians who are working or aspiring to work in the music industry are to have any hope of competent, committed representation from their locals or the Federation, the structure and focus of the AFM must change to give musicians much more of a voice in the policies and priorities of their union.

We urge all professional musicians to organize themselves and become involved in their locals and its electoral processes. In that way, we can begin to build a union that will act like a union in negotiating and administering collective bargaining agreements and in representing the interests of professional musicians at AFM conventions.

If you are interested in becoming active in your local and the AFM, we want to hear from you. You can also help us promote democratic unionism across the AFM by subscribing to our Newsletter and by urging your colleagues to subscribe as well. We will all need to work together if we are to succeed in making the voice of working musicians heard at both local and international levels.

We believe that, as professional musicians, you need and deserve a union that listens to you and works for your interests. That is our goal and we hope it is yours too.

If so, you can help us help you.