Local 1000 Fair Trade Music Initiative

June 1, 2011

Reprinted from the Local 1000 Newsletter “New Deal“
by John McCutcheon

You walk into your local coffee shop and you see it: Fair Trade Coffee. Those three small words speak volumes. Decent pay, fair working conditions, a voice in one’s work life. Once a rarity, the fair trade concept has spread to clothing, chocolate, even tourism. AFM Local 99 of Portland, OR knew a good idea when they saw it and coined Fair Trade Music. When I saw a reference to this in their Local’s newsletter I recognized it too. For years our Fair Folk project had floundered under the weight of having to constantly explain what it meant.

But “Fair Trade” was a concept you didn’t have to introduce. The Executive Board agreed and we’re proud to introduce Local 1000’s Fair Trade Music initiative. What does it do? It creates a community of fairness in our trade and streamlines the process by which individual musicians can assure their future. It does this via two simple requirements:

  • That venues and promoters agree to pay at least Local 1000’s scale to their performers.
  • That venues and promoters accept Local 1000 pension-bearing contracts (the LS-1 in the US, the LPCC in Canada), if the musician wishes to use them.

While Fair Folk sought to establish a “national contract” to which employers would sign on to, Fair Trade Music establishes a threshold through which collective bargaining agreements can naturally evolve and, at the same time, introduce employers to the Pension Fund and the ease of Local 1000 contracts.

We’ll be launching the campaign this fall with an initial line-up of 50 venues that will be Charter Members of Fair Trade Music. These will include clubs, concert series, house concerts, folk societies, etc. We have a goal of another 50 venues by year’s end.

What does this mean to you? It means 100 venues that are educated in and will accept pension-bearing contracts without having to do the training yourself. 100 venues in which you do not have to argue to get at least minimum scale. Canadian venues that will pay your GST or HST. 100 venues in which you can feel at home, where you know presenters understand and agree to your Local’s concept of fairness in wage and working conditions. And 100 is just the beginning. What about 200 by the end of 2012?

How did we get these venues? By asking them. One by one. We’ll get more Fair Trade Music venues if Local 1000 members start talking to employers about the idea, giving them the information, following up with them, encouraging them.

What venues do you play that you think are good fits for Fair Trade Music? Are there employers you work with that just need a little nudge to meet Fair Trade Music standards? We’ll have stickers for the doors, digital artwork for web sites, posters, and T-shirts; and a list of honor on our web site. We’ll praise those who meet the standards and pressure those who fall short.

There aren’t enough times when people get props for simply doing the right thing. And Fair Trade Music signals just that…and hopefully sets a standard by which our entire community can be measured.