With 2025 on our doorstep, Local 802 is well situated to build on the success of several recent contract campaigns and play a role in this year’s elections for NYC politicians.

Local 802 is dedicated to making sure that musicians’ interests are represented by all our elected leaders. All of the NYC elected officials are up for reelection — the mayor, city council, comptroller, public advocate, and all five borough presidents. Nearly all of these politicians can powerfully influence the arts in our city in different ways, including creating new opportunities for musicians and ensuring that artists are paid a living wage on union contracts.

Our standing priority is to make sure that, at minimum, we have “labor peace” agreements with city-funded venues and producers, which gives us a fair shot at making sure musicians earn the wages and benefits they deserve.

Other priorities include arts education, protecting our flagship contracts (New York Philharmonic, Met Opera, NYC Ballet and Broadway), and creating new live music opportunities under union contracts.

In this column, I want to make sure our members are briefed about our endorsement process as well as know when to vote and how to contribute to our political action fund.

ENDORSEMENTS

Local 802 makes official endorsements by assessing the field of candidates and determining which candidates might best represent the needs of musicians. We invite select candidates to fill out a questionnaire, followed by individual interviews and an eventual appearance before the union’s Executive Board. (Not every candidate will be offered all of these opportunities.) The Executive Board ultimately votes to endorse a candidate. The Executive Board expects to make its first endorsements shortly.

Our endorsements can be powerful, but that is not automatic. What makes them impactful is being selective in deploying our political resources to (1) show the public we are behind a candidate, (2) get out the vote for our endorsed candidates, (3) support our endorsed candidates with much-needed financial resources through PAC contributions.

DONATE TO LOCAL 802’s POLITICAL ACTION FUND

Tempo 802 is Local 802’s political action fund, sometimes referred to as a Political Action Committee (PAC). This fund, split between a federal fund for national representatives and a state fund for local and state representatives, makes it possible for Local 802 to support and partner with elected officials and government allies as we work to champion the priorities, rights and goals of musicians and working people at the local, state, national and international levels. All musicians are affected by the political and legislative decisions made in Washington D.C., Albany, and City Hall on issues we’ve known for decades and new things that pop up every year.

From arts funding and employment status legislation, to local scoring requirements for film and tv projects receiving tax credits, workers compensation, health policy, the minimum wage and more, the decisions made by our elected representatives dictate our ability to make a living, enjoy a high quality of life and raise a family. The long-term success of our efforts depends on our ability to support our allies and fight those who damage the arts and our livelihoods.

Union PACs like Tempo 802 have different rules than the “dark-money” political groups that dominate the news every election. Donors to our PAC must pass two thresholds: they must hold US citizenship or have permanent resident status (green card), AND they must be a member of our union. This makes our pool of financial support entirely reliant on the contributions of one another.

In the coming weeks I will be in touch about ways we are modernizing our political action fund for both this 2025 election cycle and to build political capacity for our union that will be member-driven and more robust than in the past.

For now, please visit our political action fund website and consider signing up for a monthly recurring donation at whatever rate feels appropriate to you.

NYC ELECTION TIMELINE

• Primary election: June 24, 2025
• General election: Nov. 4, 2025
• Registration deadline: 10 days before election day
• Register to vote: www.vote.nyc

LABOR MOVEMENT ENDORSEMENTS

In addition to any of Local 802’s upcoming endorsements, you can always get a snapshot of the NYC labor movement’s endorsements at https://laborvotes.nyc . Those endorsements will most likely be posted closer to the primary election.

If you want to get involved, e-mail me at dpoint@local802afm.org