Musicians United, 2024 CA Labor Fed Convention style: AFM Local 47 Organizer Rahul Neuman, Local 47 member Sidney Hopson, California Labor Federation President Lorena Gonzales, AFM Local 7 (Orange County) President Edmund Velasco, and AFM Local 6 (San Francisco) Executive Board member John Fisher.

by Rahul Neuman, AFM Local 47 Organizer

I was fortunate to be able to represent AFM Local 47 at this year’s California Labor Federation Convention in San Diego, July 15-17, along with my colleague, Sidney Hopson. This was the largest CA Fed convention yet, with 700 delegates in attendance. It was inspiring to hear so many union activists speak on a diverse set of issues, and quite a learning experience. While there were the typical pro forma aspects (e.g., Call to Order, Nomination of Officers), the other messages centered around organizing for the 2024 General Elections and expanding unions.

One of the major, recurring themes was around the paramount importance of organizing and building coalitions between unions. As CA Fed President Lorena Gonzales stated, “We will be anywhere you want us to be as long as you are organizing.” I also can’t stress enough how significant it is to have a presence at events like this, building connections and establishing a strong rapport with sibling unions.

The first day centered around campaign organizing training, focusing on electing union-friendly candidates and ballot measures. For example, the LA Fed helped organize a campaign around Measure A, which would help build housing to bring homeless into homes and create social services to assist with drug rehabilitation, all with union jobs. This campaign, which AFM Local 47 has participated in, successfully brought 400,000 signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot. Other examples include campaigns to vote out white supremacists on school boards, as well as the fight around autonomous vehicles. An important point around the latter is that it’s not about organizing to outlaw certain technologies, but rather to make sure sufficient processes are followed to ensure proper testing and safety practices. Apropos the aphorism repeated by another union rep, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” The main takeaway from the training is this: Make sure to be able to pivot from ballot campaigns like Measure A into other organizing efforts. We take on the major issues that affect workers, avoid party issues as much as possible, and then connect the issues to get as many people involved.

The convention on days two and three covered a lot, from recent organizing successes to recognizing a younger generation of organizers to actually attending an Airport Action led by AFA (Association of Flight Attendants) president Sara Nelson. Some of the organizing successes include AEA (Actors Equity) organizing 1,700 workers at Disneyland, CSU Employees Union (CSUEU) organizing 20,000 students workers in the California State University system, and the United Domestic Workers (UDW/AFSCME 3930) adding over 5,000 members since 2022. UDW’s Executive Director, Doug Moore, emphasized the importance of an earlier effort to pass term limits paving the way for, “a future where entrenched corporate interests have less influence and our government is more representative of the people it serves.” LA Labor Federation President Yvonne Wheeler couched all these successes in the context of marrying the labor movement with the civil rights movement, and discussed how Labor can connect and turn out the vote. These successes are due to unions’ efforts to take organizing beyond contract campaigns, to the community and to fight for social justice.

The strength of making connections between different organizing efforts also revealed itself in the connections we made during the Convention. We met representatives from Actors Equity, discussed some common efforts that we might work on together in the future given the connections between the Disneyland workers and musicians at theme parks. We met several activists from SAG-AFTRA, some of whom we knew from our time on the picket lines last year, and discussed different coalition efforts among entertaining unions. Sidney Hopson, who has been deeply involved with the AFM’s A.I. Committee, joined forces with members of SAG-AFTRA’s unofficial working group on emergent technology to share industry, developer, and technological insights that can better equip our unions to protect members from the illicit use of our work and likeness. We met and talked organizing with Lorena Gonzales and Yvonne Wheeler, emphasizing the gains we’ve made in the past year and discussed upcoming campaigns we might partner on. I also spoke with Organizing Director Chloe Osmer who introduced me to Sara Flocks, Legislative and Strategic Campaigns Director at CA Labor Fed.

It was wonderful to have AFM Local 47 representation at the CA Labor Fed Convention, not only to keep current on the latest organizing efforts and methods but also because it helps us gain visibility in the community of unions fighting for worker protections. The discussions between unions in different industries leads to helping each other in campaigns and actions, and helps us identify ways to connect issues of different unions and measures with our own campaigns. It’s important to always be organizing, not only for the health of our individual unions but also to secure the help of the CA Labor Fed and other unions. The connections we make become building blocks as we move towards forming union coalitions. This coalescing of members from different unions helps build more collective power.