MU General Secretary Naomi Pohl (pictured fourth from left) and other trade union leaders met with Labour leadership this week to discuss worker and freelancer rights. Image credit: © National TULO.
On Monday night, MU General Secretary Naomi Pohl made a speech to MPs at a Labour Movement for Europe reception, highlighting the issues that our members face when touring in the EU.
Naomi then attended a meeting at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday, along with other union leaders, to discuss worker and freelancer rights with Keir Starmer. She has previously raised key topics with him on music education, streaming royalties and EU touring.
It was great to hear the determination of the Labour Government to improve the situation for UK musicians
The MU’s Head of Government Relations attended a roundtable meeting with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Minister, Chris Bryant MP on Wednesday. The topics on the agenda were EU touring, music education and AI.
The MU welcomed the positive manifesto commitments on music education and broadening the curriculum, and briefed the Minister on the standstill funding for music hubs and the urgent need to address peripatetic teachers’ terms and conditions.
The Minister was very keen to address the issues around EU touring as soon as possible, but this will involve negotiation with Europe. It was great, however, to hear the determination of the Labour Government to improve the situation for UK musicians and we look forward to continuing to work with them to achieve this.
The MU will also be meeting the new Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy, in Manchester next week.