AFM President Ray Hair’s $1000 Challenge for TEMPO
Election season is coming into the home stretch, and this is a good time to think about donating to TEMPO,
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Featured
Streaming Series Funded By MPTF Kicked Off This Week
“Jazz from Denton, Texas” Wednesday Night Series at Steve’s Wine Bar in Denton was kicked off Wednesday, September 16. Through
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MPTF Funding Creates Gigs During Pandemic
Since the COVID-19 Pandemic effectively suspended all live musical performance, the AFM has been working out new ways to use the funding of Music Performance Trust Fund to respond to the crisis by creating new, safe performance engagements. The entire festival season where hundreds of Local 72-147 members are featured in signature events such as the Main Street Fort Worth Arts Festival and the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival had to be tragically canceled for 2020
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Local 72-147 Elections This Fall
Nominations to be Taken: Sunday, November 1 at 4:30 pm
Elections to be Held: Sunday, December 6, 2020
Local 72-147 bylaws provide for triennial (every three years) nomination and election of officers and convention delegates. Nominations will be taken for the following officers: President, Vice President, Secretary-Treasurer, and eight Executive Board Members. The President and Secretary-Treasurer are the first two delegates to the AFM Convention
Read moreMake Performing Artists Voices Heard In Congress
Nearly four months ago, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the HEROES Act, a comprehensive COVID-19 relief bill that would
Read moreReturning to Work Safely
Musicians will soon venture back into live venues, recording studios and rehearsalspaces, if they have not already done so. During
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DFW Musicians COVID-19 Relief Fund
The purpose of the DFW Musicians COVID-19 Relief Fund is to provide assistance for freelance members of Local 72-147 who do not have guaranteed income and benefits under collective bargaining agreements, and who are in severe hardship situations due to lost income from cancelled freelance jobs. To donate or apply for financial relief go to www.musiciansdfw.org.
Read moreAide for Musicians Through the CARES Act
With the Passage of the CARES Act on March 27, The Federal Government is subsidizing important unemployment benefits that now cover musicians who have lost work due to the Covid-19 Crisis.
This new legislation gives jobless musicians and other working people larger unemployment benefits over a longer period of time—including those who rely on freelance jobs. For the first time, musicians whose work is covered by 1099s are eligible for benefits – if they are out of work due to the COVID-19 shut down – and they have every right to apply.
Negotiating in the Midst of a Worldwide Pandemic
As spring 2020 approached, Local 72-147 was preparing for one of the busiest negotiating seasons in many years, with the musicians of the Dallas and Fort Worth Symphonies, the Dallas Opera Orchestra, East Texas Symphony and Dallas Summer Musicals all preparing to negotiate successor agreements with their managements. With the outbreak of COVID-19 creating a shutdown of public gatherings and stay-at-home orders for individuals across DFW, these musicians found themselves with current performance seasons shuttered. Previously unimaginable, force majeure provisions were invoked by some employers, and others through application for SBA PPP loans made available through the CARES Act, passed on March
Read moreTell Your Senators To Protect Pension Plans
Call your senators at 844-551-6921 and urge them to reject the Grassley-Alexander proposal, which would harm the Butch Lewis Act. Tell them to support legislation that will provide retirees with their hard-earned benefits and stabilize the multiemployer pension system overall. Anything less is unacceptable.
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