Greetings:

I went to the Central Labor Council AFL-CIO rally yesterday, and unable to find a contingent from American Federation of Musicians Local 1000, I asked the people from AFM Local 802 if I could join them, as we all belong to the same national union. Of course they said "Welcome, brother."

For those who have no idea of the distinction, Local 802 has been the New York area musicians' union for a long time. Local 1000 is a recently established union for "traveling" musicians. That is defined as a musician who works fewer than half of his/her gigs within the jurisdiction of any one AFM local.

Anyway, I had an interesting discussion with a Local 802 members who argued that Local 1000 will never be taken seriously as long as its base is among folk, acoustic, and singer-songwriter musicians. What Local 1000 needs to do, he suggested, is get some high profile pop, rock, alternative, and hip-hop musicians to join. Right away that would bring some money into the Local 1000 welfare and pension funds. But more importantly, it would send a signal to the second, third, and fourth level musicians in those genres that joining the union is both useful and cool. And those musicians, without the big bucks of the super stars, are the ones who could really benefit from union membership. At the same time, it would give the union some leverage in bargaining with the big clubs and concert producers.

I agree with his analysis. Any comments?

--- Steve Suffet (Member, AFM Local 1000, AFL-CIO)