Last Month at the Local
Last month was filled with both good and bad events. We hope all of our members made it through Hurricane Irma with no trouble other than the expected power outages. The Local offices had no damage, but were without power for a week. For those of you that did suffer damage or loss of work, help is available.
As we mentioned a few weeks ago, many organizations are providing assistance for those in need, including the AFL-CIO, the AFM, FEMA, and others. Unemployment benefits are also available for musicians that lost work, even if you don't normally qualify for unemployment (are self-employed, etc.). Please contact us if you would like more information on the resources available.
On the positive side, musicians ratified our new agreement with Broadway Across America (see Official Business for details). We are now in the process of incorporating the new language into the agreement, and should have updated booklets available soon. We also finally settled our lawsuit against Florida Grand Opera over their unauthorized posting of videos on YouTube. It has taken us nine years to resolve this, and five of those years were after a judge ruled that FGO violated our contract as we tried to resolve damages. We are happy to put this behind us so we can move on to more productive tasks. Lastly, nominations for the 2018-20 term of office concluded, and as no offices were contested, all nominees were declared elected (please see Official Business). They will take office on January 2, 2018. Congratulations to all nominees!
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