Harvey Mars and Marc Ribot at Winter Jazzfest

WINTER JAZZFEST: saxophonist James Brandon Lewis with bassist Hilliard Greene

One of the greatest challenges of modern-day unions is to find creative ways to mold established collective bargaining agreement terms to serve novel ways in which musicians work. Beyond the difficulties of organizing these work paradigms, once union recognition is secured, negotiating acceptable terms is extremely difficult. Established union provisions often are not translatable to work environments where there are multiple employers and venues. To be successful, formulation of contractual terms must be gradual and accomplished over several contractual generations.

The collective bargaining agreement between the Winter Jazzfest and Local 802 is just such an agreement. Voluntary union recognition was first secured roughly 15 years ago in a barebones collective bargaining agreement that only contained “suggested” wage payment minimums. This agreement, which was just recently renegotiated, has evolved over time into a mature comprehensive agreement. Each successive negotiation added new terms. Finally, with the recently negotiated agreement, musicians won a whopping 16 percent wage increase, enhanced working conditions, cancellation provisions and non-discrimination language.

ABOVE: The Winter Jazzfest is an especially complicated negotiation, partly because it covers multiple venues and multiple contractors, as per the map of the festival above.

The Winter Jazzfest negotiation presented unique conditions that made traditional bargaining unnavigable because, as a music festival, it takes place over the course of a week in multiple venues such as Nublu, Zinc Bar, Racket and the Bowery Ballroom, with a huge variety and number of bands performing in these venues (see map above). Formation of an agreement necessitated the festival presenter to agree to require each of its contractors to guarantee payment of the negotiated scales as well adherence to work conditions and terms. It was a steep hill to climb, but it was ultimately attainable. Another factor that contributed to the success of this negotiation was the involvement of the negotiation committee. This truly was a grassroots process. The committee was involved in every step of this negotiation from contractual proposal formulation to communications with the festival presenter. This agreement serves as an example that collective bargaining can be achievable even in non-traditional work settings.

CONGESTION PRICING UPDATE

Another challenge that we all may soon be presented with is the imposition of a congestion pricing surcharge in New York City. Local 802 recently sent out an e-mail blast to all members with an update on the congestion pricing process and an invitation to give comments.

The United Federation of Teachers has initiated a suit against the U.S. Department of Transportation and others seeking to enjoin the imposition of the congestion pricing plan on procedural and process grounds. For those interested in seeing a copy of the suit, it can be accessed here.

It was suggested by some that Local 802 initiate its own suit or join in the UFT’s suit. As a practical matter, any effort by Local 802 to initiate its own suit would be duplicative and unnecessary. If UFT’s suit is successful, it will benefit everyone affected by congestion pricing. Further, Local 802 and any other interested party will have an opportunity to support the UFT’s legal position in the event that there is an appeal.

Local 802 is trying to mitigate the financial burden of any potential congestion pricing to our members. Each of our four promulgated agreements (public service, fundraising, single engagement/club date agreement and single engagement classical) now requires that employers reimburse musicians a portion of any congestion pricing payment when they travel to and from work. Negotiation of similar terms for other Local 802 agreements will depend upon the desire and priority of each bargaining unit. See article here in this issue of Allegro.