Category Archives: Political Action

Soundgirls of Austin and IATSE Local 205 to Mayor Adler

The City of Austin has taken measures during this unprecedented time to provide relief for both musicians and music venues via the Music Disaster Relief Fund. Sadly, this fund offers no support for the hardworking venue technicians whose behind-the-scenes efforts make live music events possible. Please sign this petition to let City Council know that production technicians such as lighting designers, sound engineers, and stage managers need to be included when it comes to aiding the Austin music scene and providing hope through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Sign the online petition.

Sample Letter:

To: Mayor Steve Adler
From: You

We recognize that protecting Austin’s musicians and music venues is extremely important. However, if the goal is to protect Austin’s music industry, one key element has been left out of Austin’s Music Disaster Relief Fund; live event technicians.

Whether an event is large or small, musicians cannot be seen or heard without the involvement and expertise of stage technicians. Production staff, including sound engineers, lighting designers, video engineers, and others, are integral to the success of live music performances. In fact, the quality of production can have a direct impact on the income a venue generates.

Production staff are often freelance and just as financially unstable as musicians. Like musicians and music venues, technicians are also in need of assistance to survive the health and economic crisis caused by COVID-19. Most affected are technicians who have been misclassified as contract labor causing their unemployment claims to be denied, delayed, or significantly reduced.

We realize these are extremely difficult times for everyone. However, in formulating help for performance-based arts, we ask that assistance is not limited to performers and venues only. Although professionally stage technicians strive to be invisible, we do not wish to be invisible within our community.

Please expand the Austin Music Disaster Relief Fund to include production staff who live in the Greater Austin Area and regularly work in local venues, and contribute to Austin being recognized as the Live Music Capital of the World.

Election Resources for July 14

The following post is a copy of what was sent via the membership email list.

This contains everything you should need to be prepared to vote on July 14. Please scroll all the way through. It has 3 parts, 

  1. voter resources
  2. voter deadlines
  3. union endorsements of candidates

RESOURCES

For a clear understanding of who’s on the July 14 Ballot and to print a sample ballot based on your address, Texas runoff election: Who’s on the ballot | The Texas Tribune

Polling places will NOT be at grocery stores. They will be a county facilities instead. To find out where your polling place is, check you are registered to vote, and check key election dates visit, Am I Registered?

There will also be new voting system,
Travis County Clerk – Meet Your New Voting System

To find out how Travis County is preparing for voting,
Texas July Runoff Election: What to know to vote | kvue.com

If you want to vote by mail, print off this application. It has to be received by July 2, 2020. https://countyclerk.traviscountytx.gov/images/pre/pdf_tc_elections_ABBM_2018.pdf

The League of Women Voters has a good piece on voting by mail here, League Of Women Voters Austin Area – Empowering voters. Defending democracy.

And, here is the Austin League of Women Voters Voter’s Guide with information on the candidates running for election,
https://lwvaustin.org/votersguide/LWVAA-VG-2020-07-ENG-final.pdf

More resources, 
Everything You Need to Vote – Vote.org
VOTE411

DEADLINES

Texas AFL-CIO and Austin Central Labor Council Endorsements

Endorsements are voted on by union members affiliated with their state and local AFL-CIO. 

Special election Senate District 14:
No action: Sarah Eckhardt and Eddie Rodriquez

U.S. Senate:
Dual endorsement MJ Hegar and Royce West

U.S. House runoffs:
District 3 Dual endorsement Sean McCaffity and Lulu Seikaly
District 10 Mike Siegel
District 13 No endorsement (Greg Sagan and Gus Trujillo)
District 17 David Anthony Jaramillo
District 24 Dual endorsement Kim Olson and Candace Valenzuela
District 31 Donna Imam

Statewide: Railroad Commissioner runoff:
Roberto “Beto” Alonzo

State Board of Education runoffs:
District 6 No endorsement (Kimberly McLeod and Michelle Palmer)

Texas Senate runoffs:
District 19 Xochil Pena Rodriguez
District 27 No endorsement (Sara Stapleton Barrera and Eddie Lucio, Jr.)

Texas House runoffs
District 26 No endorsement (L. Sarah DeMerchant and Suleman Lalani)
District 67 No endorsement (Tom Adlair and Lorenzo Sanchez)
District 100 Lorraine Birabil
District 119 No endorsement (Elizabeth “Liz” Campos and Jennifer Ramos)
District 138 Dual endorsement Akilah Bacy and Josh Wallenstein
District 142 Jerry Davis
District 148 Penny Shaw

Travis County runoffs:
County Court at Law 4 No Action Margaret Chen Kercher and Dimple Malhotra
District Attorney No Action Jose Garza and Margaret Moore
County Attorney No Action Laurie Eiserloh and Delia Garza
Commissioner’s Court Precinct 3 Valinda Bolton

Key

  • No action means affiliated local unions are free to endorse their own candidate.
  • No endorsement means the candidate did not seek endorsement from our state and local AFL-CIO. 
  • Dual endorsement means affiliated locals should support both candidates and leave it to individual members to choose which of the two endorsed candidates to vote for.

In Solidarity,
Rachel Magee, President.

Action: Top Priorities for Entertainment Workers in Subsequent COVID-19 Legislation

Letter writing campaign, contact your representatives now. Personalize your letter for better effect. The following goals are from the IATSE C.A.R.E.S. announcement.

Congress has begun to pursue additional federal legislation in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The entertainment industry will continue to be disproportionately impacted by this health crisis and we need to ensure that that subsequent COVID-19 legislation puts workers first. We must act now and urge our representatives to include the following priorities in any subsequent legislation:

· Make sure workers in all states have access to COVID-19 relief by demanding that states ramp up and improve their unemployment claim processing.

· Preserve workers’ healthcare and ensure that no-one loses their benefits by passing a 100 percent COBRA premium subsidy to keep families insured on their job-based healthcare plan and extend eligibility to 36 months.

· Extend the “CARES” Act’s unemployment insurance provisions for as long as the health crisis persists.

· Allow all nonprofits fair access to the government economic support in the Paycheck Protection Program – including labor unions, the staffs of which are providing vital assistance to members around the clock and face the same hardships that small businesses face.

· Protect the healthy pension plans and earned pension checks of entertainment workers by allowing multiemployer plans to implement policies that safeguarded pensions after the Great Recession, such as freezing zone status, smoothing investment losses, and doing no harm to healthy pension plans.

· Update the Qualified Performing Artist tax deduction, allowing creative professionals to keep more of our hard-earned money by deducting necessary business expenses from their taxes, now due in July.

· Provide direct economic support for organizations in the arts, entertainment, and media industries with appropriate workforce restoration requirements to get people back to work when it is safe to do so.

· And finally, we must protect entertainment workers still performing essential work in news media and converting facilities into temporary field hospitals by requiring the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard.

Start writing your letter.