Membership

• Benefits
• How to Join
• Bill of Rights
• What is "Minimum Wage"?

Membership Benefits

1. Contract protection - A signed, filed AFM contract will open doors to both AFM and Local 76-493 benefits. AFM contracts are easy to complete and most purchasers will sign them if asked.
2. Legal services - Local 76-493 can provide collection and dispute resolution services including local officers, staff and appropriate legal experts.
3. 1-800-ROADGIG - When you're on the road away from home and your gig gets cancelled, you get fired or ripped off, the AFM's Emergency Traveling Assistance Program can help you out.
4. EMP-AFM Visa Assistance - The AFM can act as your sponsor to get a work permit to perform in Canada, without the usual visa/work permit hassles if you apply on your own. More...
5. Email Referral Service - Local 76-493 members may receive over 100 job leads each month via email.
6. Scale of minimum fees - The concept of scale allows us to work cooperatively without undercutting each other, exploiting other musicians, or accepting sub-standard work conditions for ourselves.
7. Pension plan - The AFM-EP (Pension) Fund, one of the best in North America, is 100% employer funded, and is available if you perform at qualifying workplaces. More...
8. Health and dental plans - Health plans are available at group rates. We offer a health plan by Goup Health and a dental plan by Dental Health Services.
9. Instrument insurance - Coverage is provided at a highly competitive rate, ensuring that your instruments and gear (including computers) are covered wherever you are working, not just in your home.
10. Recording Industries Music Performance Trust Funds (RIMPTF) - These funds allow you to create or participate in gigs for the public which are co-sponsored by the RIMPTF, and ensure that musicians get paid union scale wages. More...
11. Directories and representation - We have representation at weddings and trade shows; we also have listings of hundreds of fairs, festivals, clubs and performance venues, facilities which use live music, recording studios, managers, booking agencies, and other industry resources, with member discounts available from some facilities.
12. Industry periodicals - The Association puts out the newsletter Musicland, and the AFM sends out the International Musician, keeping members informed about working musicians' issues.
13. Westside Credit Union - Services include loans, savings accounts, Mastercard, Share Draft Account and IRAs, all at excellent group rates.
14. Networking and skills exchange - Through our directories and database you can find other musicians to perform with, or help you with other needs such as accounting, desktop publishing, etc.

How to Join the Union

For new members in 2009:

Initiation Fees: $65.00 Federation + $20.00 Local
(These are one-time-only fees which you pay upon joining)

Dues are $48.00 per quarter. If you've never been a member before, dues are $133.00 (which includes initiation fees).

For existing members in 2009:

$192.00 per year (or 10% discount of $172.80 in JANUARY ONLY). Regular dues are $48.00 per quarter.

Additionally there are work dues, (based on scale wages), payable at:

1. 2% on jobs booked through the Local's referral service
2. 3% on recording sessions
3. Similar varying rates on organized performance groups as defined by their Collective Bargaining Agreements

Talk to our office staff about the costs involved in becoming a member or receiving insurance or health benefits - we're here to help you and answer your questions. Our organizing team is also eager to hear your ideas and concerns as a working musician.

For more information feel free to call us at: (206) 441-7600, Mon-Thurs 9:00-5:00

Membership Application Form

The Musician's Bill of Rights

Whereas, musicians, in addition to being artists, are also human beings entitled to human rights, and workers entitled to workers' rights, therefore let it be self-evident that these rights shall for now and forever include:

1. The right to enjoy a minimum wage, whether derived from live performance, royalties, or reuse, that is sufficient to provide a standard of support proportional to the entire investment of time and resources required to secure and perform said gainful employment.
2. The right to safe and healthy working conditions including protection from health threatening theatrical devices, demeaning and exploitive costumes or uniforms, excessive sound pressure levels, substandard travel arrangements, ingestion of second hand tobacco smoke, irrelevant recorded music before performances and during intermissions and the right to reasonable rest periods.
3. The right to quality education, health care, legal protection and representation, housing, financial services, child care, unemployment benefits and retirement security, all of which must be affordable within the economic limits defined by the minimum wage.
4. The right to equal employment opportunities based on musical qualifications and/or entertainment value regardless of race, ethnic background, age, gender, religion, cultural diversity or political affiliations.
5. The right to negotiate fairly on one's own behalf with universal recognition and legal enforcement of resulting contracts on agreed terms.
6. The right to free speech as defined in the U. S. Constitution Bill of Rights and applied to all musical performances and/ or recordings.
7. The right to ownership of all intellectual property rights as applied to compositions, performances, and recordings by all players and singers as well as leaders and publishers who are already protected.
8. The right to bargain collectively.
9. The right to freedom from discrimination.
10. The right to respect from society, equal to that afforded all other workers and professionals are also entitled to the same rights in exchange for the respective contribution of time and materials to place their work in society.

What is "Minimum Wage"?

Minimum wage from gainful employment must be sufficient to pay all necessary costs for life, shelter, and health care in the proportion of 100% for 40 hours weekly invested and directly proportional for fewer hours.

This investment of time includes, in addition to hours of actual live performance, those hours spent in practice, rehearsal, preparation, post-production and (when required by the employer) promotion of the event.

In absolutely no instance shall this total work investment be compensated for less than federally mandated minimum wages. Cash investment, including commissions to agents, managers, attorneys, and promoters, to secure musical employment, as well as all production costs associated with said employment, shall in every instance be over and above this minimum wage.

In those instances when the artist is at financial risk for a speculative project, including performances and/or recordings, that artist shall be guaranteed a portion of the profits realized (including all subsequent reuses) that is never less than directly proportional to the percentage of risk borne by the artist.

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• Benefits
• How to Join
• Bill of Rights
• What is "Minimum Wage"?