“I am delighted to be standing here and to see so many familiar faces, as well as some new ones! This is my second Delegate Conference as your General Secretary. It was a huge honour to be elected, and I want to share with you some of the major changes within the Union over the past two years.
“Firstly, I promised that we would ensure the Union represented all musicians equally, wherever they are based, however they make music and whatever their background. I also promised we would modernise and grow the Union. We now have well over 36,000 members which is an incredible milestone. Prior to the pandemic, our membership stood at 30,000 for many years.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
“What’s more, we are attracting more diverse musicians into membership. Over the past two and a half years, 37% of new joiners have been women, 14% Global Majority musicians, 15% LGBTQ+, 8% disabled, 1% trans and 1% non-binary. All of these figures are an increase on the ratios in our existing membership, and we will keep working to improve on them.
“We are also less London-centric and my colleagues are spread all over the UK, with large hubs in Scotland, the North of England and our first Regional Officer based in Northern Ireland. Our staff and Committee meetings are spread around the UK more often and I believe this is really important; we are more reflective of our membership and our Regional structure.
“In 2023, we ran the first ever Musicians’ Census along with Help Musicians UK, and this has enabled us to better represent musicians from marginalised groups by illustrating barriers they face in their music careers. The insight reports we’ve produced paint a picture of discrimination, pay gaps and a lack of support for disabled musicians, those from the Global Majority, LGBTQ+ musicians and women.
“We are lobbying for further protections in the law, particularly for freelance musicians, and at the same time working with partner organisations to bring about practical changes. I am extremely proud of our work with Black Lives in Music to improve inclusive recruitment in orchestras, for example, and our Access Rider, developed with Attitude is Everything. This work is led by our fantastic Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) team – John Shortell and Dr Diljeet Bhachu.
“It is a personal mission for me that we aim for a better gender balance, not just in the MU but in the wider music industry. We have now been running the MU SafeSpace service for reporting of sexual harassment for nearly 10 years. It is sadly as busy as ever. The development of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority – or CIISA – is a major step towards making the industry safer for everyone, and women and marginalised workers in particular.
Industrial negotiations
“We have been fighting harder than ever to save jobs. As you’ll read in our Conference Report, we have carried out successful industrial action ballots at Welsh National Opera, English National Opera, the Royal Opera House and we secured jobs for the BBC Singers as well as in the BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony.
“The work of our activists on the ground in all these orchestras and the BBC Singers has been incredible. It takes passion, hard work and resilience to run campaigns in the workplace; leafleting audiences night after night, holding demonstrations, campaigning online and negotiating. Thank you to all our activists and to our many hardworking Officials who have helped to organise these campaigns.
Member democracy
“Last year, the new MU Members’ Assembly met for the first time. Its Chair, Linton Stephens, will talk to you more about their work later in the Conference. It is a diverse and representative forum of members, ensuring that our policy making takes in a wider range of views.
“We have a Climate Emergency Action Group, led by Bridget Walsh from London, and Balraj Samrai from the North of England.
Campaigns and political issues
“We have also just launched our Freelance Shout Out campaign, which will help to amplify freelance musicians’ voices and support them to organise in workplaces and communities. Check out the new Guide to Organising on our website, which was developed by our campaigns team and our new Organising Support Official Sinead McCarney.
“We are still fighting hard on major industrial and political issues like music streaming, artificial intelligence, and EU touring. We have ploughed thousands and thousands of hours into lobbying MPs, working with and consulting affected members, and campaigning online. While we have a Labour Government now and the will is there to make change, we are up against powerful forces who try to circumvent us.
“On AI and music streaming in particular, we are taking on international corporations with very deep pockets and significant influence. There is a Government announcement today that record labels are making small steps towards paying musicians fairly. But it doesn’t go anywhere near far enough. We are launching a petition for copyright reform as we know that record labels won’t share revenue fairly on a voluntary basis. We need the law to provide guaranteed remuneration.
"Historically, we and fellow trade unionists across the globe have proved that collective action works.
“We have the most fantastic activists”
“We are a really punchy and powerful Union, regardless of who we’re up against. I believe we are representing and organising members better than ever.
“We have the most fantastic activists across our Committees, diversity networks, in workplaces and on the Executive Committee, to name but a few. Thank you to every member who has attended meetings, events, represented us at Conferences, voted in ballots, put themselves forward to be a rep, signed a petition, submitted a motion, made a speech or worn a campaign t-shirt.
"Everything you do to support MU members helps us to move the dial and make the music industry, the arts sector and music education better for musicians.
"Finally huge thanks to Alex Gascoine, Chair of the EC, who dedicates a vast amount of his time to the Union and will no doubt rise spectacularly to the challenge of chairing this very busy Conference".