Join Our Movement

As we announce our Membership Drive — waiving all initiation fees for joining — we have a message for all North Texas musicians:

We would like to invite you to Join Our Movement.

As a Musicians Union we represent so many different kinds of musicians and music, and we work so many different kinds of gigs. We play gigs in churches, clubs, concert halls, hotels, private parties, community centers, and the list goes on. So with all this to work that we do, you might ask, what makes a gig a UNION gig?

Community Collaboration

Over three days last month, sixty of our union bands gave performances at the Denton Arts & Jazz Festival, sponsored by Music Performance Trust Fund (MPTF). In this case the AFM negotiated revenue from the recording industry to fund projects through MPTF. Using that funding, we collaborated with the Denton Festival Foundation to bring our community these free live music performances, paying Union scale. These were union gigs.

Collective Bargaining

We also collectively bargain with employers. Our rights under federal law empower us to come together, elect representatives, and bargain for orchestra and theater musicians, and any other group working under an employer. These are union gigs.

Engagement Contracts

Throughout our area, band leaders and contractors book gigs for any number of kinds of venues and clients using contracts upholding wage scales and working conditions for which we as a union advocate. These contracts provide musicians an avenue for protection backed by union resources, and when we accept gigs adhering to the standards of these contracts, these are union gigs too.

Working Together

In fact, any gig where we work together in some way to make the gig better, apply our rules, and treat each other’s interest as our own, is a gig where we are taking action to improve our power and conditions, and therefore, is a union gig.

Transformation

In these ways and more we seek to create transformation in the lives of musicians, to help address the difficulties we all face in the world of professional musicians, and to make every gig a Union Gig.

We invite you to join our movement.

Please join us and MAKE IT A UNION GIG!

Click HERE for the online Membership Application.