Accomplishments of the Gagliardi Administration, Year by Year

 

2010

• Much of 2010 was spent restructuring Local 802 in order to better serve the members. Improvements included modernization of computer infrastructure.

• Gagliardi elected to the International Executive Board of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada.

• Gagliardi appointed as a union-side Trustee of the American Federation of Musicians and Employers Pension Fund.

• Gagliardi appointed to AFM International Media Oversight Committee.

• Rejuvenated Local 802’s Live Music campaign, including running spots on 1010 WINS to bring attention to Local 802 and remind the public that Live Music is Best.

• Began bargaining for new agreements with the NYC Ballet, Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, NYC Opera and Broadway.

 

2011

• Won a new, five-year Broadway agreement with increases in every year of the cycle. Theatre minimums will remain locked into place through 2016.

• Won new agreements with the Met Opera, Radio City Music Hall, NYC Ballet, Stamford Symphony, New School and Apollo Theatre, plus many others.

• Became the first AFM local within the United States to reach an agreement with Cirque du Soleil.

• Won a groundbreaking agreement with producers of the Winter Jazzfest, our biggest jazz festival contract yet.

• Expanded our jurisdiction to cover the members of AFM Local 809 (Middletown, NY) and AFM Local 52-626 (Norwalk, Conn.)

• Challenged the producers of “Priscilla” over the use of canned music. In the process, we developed a high-profile campaign to save live music on Broadway and a state-of-the-art Web site, www.SaveLiveMusicOnBroadway.com.

• Revitalized and joined forces with the Council for Living Music, which commissioned a survey of Broadway audiences. We now have hard data to support our position that the public wants more live music, not less.

• Won contracts for dozens of Off Broadway and developmental theatre productions, which means all of the musicians involved enjoyed the protection of Local 802 agreements.

• Supported the Detroit Symphony Orchestra during its grueling six-month strike.

• We won a successor agreement with the Westfield Symphony. The symphony is in the jurisdiction of AFM Local 151 (Elizabeth, N.J.), but since 90 percent of the musicians belong to Local 802, they almost always rehearse in New York City. In 2000, Local 151 allowed us to seek recognition and bargain with management.

2012

• Fought back taped music at Lincoln Center twice this year. The Paul Taylor Dance Company used canned music for a three-week residency in April, and a one-night ballet festival used canned music in October. Our message to Lincoln Center is that musicians and audiences will not tolerate canned music.

• Local 802 was represented by several AFM officers, including Gagliardi, at the historic Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances and at the 2012 Congress of the International Federation of Musicians (FIM), held in Argentina. We submitted a resolution to the congress calling for “no collection without distribution,” which was adopted unanimously.

• Significantly ramped up our Justice for Jazz Artists campaign with musical marches, tons of press coverage and much more intensity. We also began a campaign to bring more live music to hotels.

• Hosted at least four major events in the club room this year: an AFM organizing summit, a nightlife forum with State Sen. Tom Duane, our eighth annual Meet and Greet for theatre musicians, and a very successful event sponsored by the Actors Fund called “Beyond the Gig,” which dealt with how to manage your career as a musician.

• Kept our union financially stable with prudent spending and better use of our resources. In this economic climate, that was no small feat.

• Continued to support musicians through our Emergency Relief Fund, Musicians’ Assistance Program and Anne Walker Scholarship Fund.

• Lobbied, in tandem with AFM Legislative Director Hal Ponder, for the FAA Modernization and Reform Act (H.R. 658), which Congress passed. The law finally established a uniform national policy regarding musical instruments on airplanes.

• Ratified many new agreements, including the master club date agreement, contracts covering the Metropolitan Opera Staff and City Center/Encores, and agreements covering dozens of Off Broadway productions.

• New York Musical Theatre Festival agreed to cover all musicians under a Local 802 agreement in all of its shows this year.

• On the national front, assisted the AFM in several recording contracts. The AFM achieved a new Pamphlet B touring agreement which finally eliminated unwanted tiers that enabled some shows to be launched with ultra-low wages.

• Handled major grievances, including the settling of the grievance over the show “Priscilla,” where producers had hired fewer musicians than the minimum and instead used a recording to provide the sound of strings and to augment the winds and brass. Collected over $21,000 in re-use fees from ABC, which was paid back to the musicians.

• In a campaign called Operation Fair Play, assigned reps to various venues to assure that our major venues stay union, including Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden and many more.

• Reinstated our Unfair List so that musicians know which employers to watch out for.

• Kept our members informed about the Affordable Care Act to let them know how it might affect them.

• Laid the groundwork for a new Local 802 Internet radio station.

• Redesigned the Local 802 Web site.

• Local 802 journal Allegro won local and national prizes for best labor publication.

 

2013

• Forged connections with the British Musicians’ Union to advance the interests of theater musicians on both sides of the pond.

• Gagliardi participated in a panel at the NYC Bar Association Entertainment Law Committee entitled “Hot Topics in the Music Business.” Panelists included representatives from the Writers’ Guild East, Actors’ Equity, IATSE, and the newly merged SAG-AFTRA.

• Gagliardi met with Senator Charles Schumer’s chief of staff in Washington, D.C. along with AFM President Ray Hair concerning tax credits for movie studios.

• Local 802 was able to revise the brand-new NYC sick pay law to ensure that musicians will be covered under it. The new law gives many employees in NYC the right to paid sick days for the first time. In an early draft of the law, the definition of “employees” wasn’t defined broadly enough to include musicians. Thanks to successful lobbying on our part, the language that we preferred made it into the law. This was truly a Local 802 success story: using our political influence, we were able to correct a deficiency in the law. This is another example of why politics really does matter to our members.

• Gagliardi was asked to serve on the steering committee of a new organization called One Percent for Culture. This group has a simple mission, but one that could shake things up in a big way: getting New York City to invest one percent of its expense budget in culture, including live music.

• Achieved a new deal with the New York City Ballet. The new contract includes a 2.75 percent wage increase over the first 18 months with another increase of 3 percent in the last six months, as well as other benefits. 

• Gagliardi was asked to join the board of Inside Broadway, a wonderful organization that works to bring the magic of live musical theatre to the next generation of audiences.

• Reached agreement with the New York Philharmonic on a new four-year contract with increases in each year.

2014

• Bargained a historic agreement with the Metropolitan Opera despite fierce pressure from the employer to take substantial cuts. What we were able to accomplish was unprecedented. There will be, on retainer, an independent financial analyst, who will report directly to the unions and the Met, to notify either party of financial issues and to monitor spending. For every penny the unions conceded, an equal reduction must be made by management. Importantly, there will be no changes to the work rules that we have bargained so hard for over the decades.

• Gagliardi represented Local 802 at the International Federation of Musicians conference in Rome.

• Gagliardi represented Local 802 at an International Federation of Musicians (FIM) conference on online music in Budapest. The result of this important conference was a declaration from the constituent unions of FIM decrying the inadequate remuneration to performing artists when their work is exploited online through both interactive media (where users can pick their own playlist) and non-interactive media (such as internet radio).  It was agreed that a 50-50 share of online revenues with the record producers was necessary for payment that is fair and proportional to the value of our contribution.

• Reinforced ties with the British Musicians’ Union in London, a key source of information about shows headed to Broadway and a partner in combatting employer attacks on our agreements.

• Local 802 made history when it led the labor contingent of the historic People’s Climate March.

• Reached agreement with the Paul Taylor American Modern Dance Company to re-establish its relationship with Local 802 and restore live music to its performances after decades of performing to recorded music.

2015:

• Gagliardi appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to the Cultural Affairs Cultural Plan Citizens’ Advisory Committee. The committee will advise the Department of Cultural Affairs on the development and implementation of New York City’s first Cultural Plan. 

• Signed a new collective bargaining agreement with City Center, covering its Encores series. 

• Successfully renegotiated our Jewish Club Date Agreement, which had expired in 2009.

• Gagliardi traveled to Belgrade to take part in meetings of the Societies’ Council for the Collective Management of Performers’ Rights.

• Local 802 was involved in rallies for a $15 minimum wage, which culminated in some victories: New York state will gradually raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $15 an hour and state workers in New York City will earn $15 an hour by the end of 2018.

• Assisted the AFM in negotiations for a new Public Television contract, which covers musicians when they play on public TV. We are making some progress, but it is slow going.

• The AFM and Local 802 reached an agreement with Sesame Workshop covering the musicians working on “Sesame Street.”

2016:

• Gagliardi attended a meeting of the International Federation of Musicians, hosted by the Musicians’ Union of Japan, to advocate for fair remuneration to musicians when their tracks are streamed on the Internet. 

• Gagliardi serves as a delegate to the Congress of the International Federation of Musicians in Reykjavik, again working to expand the global campaign of fair remuneration to musicians for the exploitation of our product on the internet. Other issues addressed at this Congress were the problems musicians face with airline travel, including carrying instruments on airplanes and traveling with instruments that contain African ivory, ebony, pernambuco and other special materials.

• Gagliardi was appointed one of the six trustees of the AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund.

• Gagliardi continued to meet with the NYC Cultural Plan Citizens’ Advisory Committee, a group of stakeholders in the arts community that seeks to help the city develop a cultural arts plan.

• Produced a new series called Jazz in the Afternoon, which raises money for our Emergency Relief Fund. 

• Achieved an agreement covering musicians who performed in Cirque du Soleil’s show “Paramour” at the Lyric Theatre.

• Broadway musicians ratified a new contract with the League. Theatre minimums remained unchanged and the new contract also included a raise for musicians as well as provisions for workplace health and safety and a greater dialogue regarding electronic music.

2017

• Revitalized Local 802’s Diversity Committee.

• Announced the debut of our Emerging Artists Project, which will give a $40,000 grant over four years to new ensembles.

• Announced the development of our new referral site at NewYorkMusicians.com. We’ll be using the site to let our members market themselves to people who want to hire musicians. Every gig booked through this site will be done via a union contract. 

• Gagliardi was awarded a Broadway Beacon Award by Inside Broadway. These awards are presented annually to leaders who help increase the audience for live theatre and who understand the importance of arts and education in the lives of New York City’s young people.

• Gagliardi was a recipient of a corporate social responsibility award by City & State New York for my work in the labor sector.

2018

• Local 802 and Lincoln Center’s American Songbook reached an agreement guaranteeing area standards for the shows that are presented as part of the series. Musicians performing for American Songbook can now count on being paid according to the standards of the Local 802 Club Date agreement. 

• The Immigrant Arts Coalition, a new alliance of New York City cultural organizations, has unveiled an agenda aiming to recognize the important and ongoing contributions of immigrant artists and arts organizations representing America’s diverse cultural mosaic. Local 802 theatre rep Marlena Fitzpatrick García was elected president of this coalition and Local 802 has joined the group.

• Awarded the inaugural Emerging Artist Project grant to the Roxy Coss Quintet, which was one of 52 applicant groups for this important new initiative.

• Hosted the most recent meeting of the Artist Rights Caucus. Recently, federal legislation aimed at updating copyright law has been introduced. In addition to supporting the Fair Play Fair Pay Act, Local 802 recently endorsed the Music Modernization Act and the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2017. 

• Reached a new agreement with the New York Philharmonic. The agreement calls for an increase of 4.5 percent in base scale wages. Local 802 member and cellist Nathan Vickery, who served as chair of the orchestra’s negotiation committee, said that “the artistic standards that make the Philharmonic world renowned will remain highest when the musicians who make music each and every night are supported.”

• Gagliardi attended the annual conference of the Sphinx Organization in Detroit. The organization is dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts.

• Created a new sexual harassment response procedure.

• Completed a successful negotiation with the Metropolitan Opera, joining forces at the table with the union representing the Met’s choristers, the American Guild of Musical Artists.

• Gagliardi named one of City & State’s Labor Power 50, citing Gagliardi’s “advoca[cy] for the ability of musicians to make a fair living and protect[ion of] live performance and recording industry standards.”