Needed a few days to catch our collective breath! Still buzzing from our time at the 30th AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention in Minneapolis, where AGMA had the opportunity to help elevate the voices of arts workers on a national stage.
AGMA President Ned Hanlon addressed delegates on the importance of the arts during this critical moment for working people. He also testified on the unique health insurance challenges facing AGMA artists as delegates considered a resolution on workers’ health and safety.
AGMA Dancers Vice President Antuan Byers led “A Movement Break for the Movement,” inviting attendees to reconnect with the body as a site of memory, strategy, grief, dignity, and possibility. Throughout the Convention, images of AGMA members flashed across screens and were seen posted to walls. AGMA also helped organize a musical program that closed out the convention’s third day, bringing together performers from SAG-AFTRA, Actors’ Equity Association, and Twin Cities Federation of Musicians, as well as community organizations Singing Resistance Twin Cities and StreetSong Minnesota.
A special thank you to the AGMA leaders who represented our union throughout the convention alongside President Hanlon: Soloists VP Andrew Stenson, Western Region VP Sally Mouzon, and Antuan Byers. We are proud to stand alongside our sibling unions across the labor movement in the fight for workers’ rights and a thriving future for the arts.
The AFL-CIO Convention is an event held every four years at which elected delegates from various labor unions come together to elect leaders and set policies for the labor movement.