What a different month from last month! The weather has changed, it’s getting dark much too early now, and last month’s successes seem a distant fond memory.

One success I can report: we have a tentative deal with the Broadway League. By the time you read this, we hope to have a finished memorandum of understanding and a scheduled ratification meeting to be followed by a vote of the bargaining unit to ratify. I can’t give further details yet, but I’ll offer those in my final president’s report in December.

BUILDING UPDATE

We began demolition on the Local 802 building as the first stage in our renovation project. That’s the good news. Unfortunately — and pretty much as expected — the demolition has uncovered our 100-year-old building’s deepest, darkest secrets. I’ve started praying that some of them stay buried. In spite of testing the whole building over the summer for asbestos and abating the blessedly small amounts we found, our contractor has now found asbestos tiles several floor layers down that we have to abate again! This alone equals time and expense. Removing the acoustic tile ceilings throughout the building has revealed masses of tangled old wiring, old duct work, and unidentifiable cabling that all must be removed. The recycling company we had been talking to and planning to hire to remove all the construction materials in a safe and eco-conscious way went out of business just as we were about to sign contracts. We have also just learned that our project manager, Charles Anders Hall, upon whom we have relied for the design and direction of the systems replacement, has died. We are both saddened and worried about the impact of this on the renovation. A year ago, we lost our chief architect to a car crash. Thank God he survived, but he left the project and never returned. The roadblocks to completing this project keep piling up! But it must be done: we have no choice, due both to the loss of functionality of the building and our mandatory compliance with new city laws regarding “carbon footprints” for buildings like ours. We are making progress, but very slowly.

REMEMBERING TWO FRIENDS

And in more sad news, we lost two friends and longtime Local 802 members this month.

First I want to mention Michael Comins, who died on Oct. 5. Michael was a violinist, unionist, activist, founder of the Local 802 Members Party, and concertmaster of the original Broadway production of “Evita” (where I first met him). He gave so much of himself to this union throughout his 90 years. Read his obituary in Allegro here.

I also want to honor Grammy-winning classical producer Adam Abeshouse, whose death on Oct. 10 at the age of 63 after a short and aggressive illness sent a shock through the musical community. Adam, also a violinist, worked with many of our business’ greatest legends and had become classical music’s go-to recording producer. Not only did he have prodigious skill, tech, ears, and knowledge, but he was also one of the happiest and most wonderful men on the planet and everyone wanted to work with him — including me. He engineered and produced one of the few recordings I’m actually proud of. (Read his tribute in the New York Times here.)

We’ll miss both these men so much. (Other recent deaths are listed on Allegro’s obituary page.)

LOCAL 802 WINS MAJOR COMMUNICATIONS AWARDS

I’m thrilled to announce that Local 802 has won first place in the country for best labor electronic newsletter (Allegro) among local, state and regional unions. We also won first place for a social media post called “Musicians Make the City Rich“ and also racked up two other wins in this year’s contest, including Local 802’s first video win. The judging organization is the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA), the professional group of labor communicators.

ILCA President Chelsea Connor told us: “Local 802 produced work that across the board judges thought was the ‘best of both worlds: detailed and informative, but also came with engaging graphics.’ It’s critical that unions reach their members on every platform and in every format possible. Local 802 accomplished that — and their work deserves to be highlighted among their peers who were all in close competition this year.”

Congratulations to us all! In recent years, Local 802 has modernized its communications, which now span all platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X and YouTube, in addition to our Web site.

MEMBERS PASS TWO NEW BYLAW AMENDMENTS

Local 802 members passed two bylaw amendments at the membership meeting of Oct. 30, 2024. Read the new amendments here. These amendments will codify Honor Membership dues as well as create an incentive for students to join Local 802 (by waiving the initiation fee). The Executive Board had reported both proposals favorably.

BROADWAY SALUTES

Broadway Salutes is a ceremony co-sponsored by the Broadway League that celebrates Broadway artists for their long careers on Broadway. This year’s ceremony was the first since 2019. I was honored to attend this year’s event and we are pleased to name the musician honorees in this issue of Allegro (click here).

ELECTION TIME!

Finally, it’s election time, both in the U.S. (on Nov. 5) and here at Local 802 (on Dec. 3). Unless you’ve been on a silent retreat away from the media for the past eight years, the U.S. elections don’t really need much more promotion at this point. Everyone already knows that this is one of the most important elections in history, where little things like women’s rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, labor rights, voting rights, human rights, democracy itself — the list goes on — are all at dire risk. If you haven’t voted yet, please make a plan to vote on or before Nov. 5.

Local 802, the AFL-CIO, and hundreds of other unions have endorsed Kamala Harris. You can get all the voting info you need (plus get a list of the labor movement’s endorsed candidates) at https://laborvotes.nyc. Also, check out what Local 802 members can do to help Kamala win!

The Local 802 elections are also important, and your vote really does make a difference. Sometimes candidates win or lose by just a few votes. There are 14 candidates running for nine Executive Board positions, plus a competitive race for our Trial Board as well. Remember, if you didn’t already request an absentee ballot for this election, the deadline has passed. So now your only chance to vote is in person on Dec. 3. (If you vote by absentee ballot AND then again in person, only your in-person vote will count.) All the information is on our voting page here. Good luck to all candidates…and thank you for your service.

Coming next month: my final president’s report (woohoo)!