Today – Labor Day – we celebrate working people, whether they be nurses, firefighters, electricians… or artists! We celebrate the progress we’ve made and prepare for what lies ahead. Today, the immortal words of the preamble to the American Mine Workers’ constitution, set to music by Waldemar Hills and Pete Seeger, rings truer than ever:
Step by step, the longest march
Can be won, can be won;
Single stones will form an arch,
One by one, one by one,
And by union, what we will
Can be all accomplished still.
Drops of water turn a mill–
Singly none, singly none.
Step by step, AGMA is moving forward: first contracts at companies such as Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Opera Colorado, Ballet Austin; industry-altering improvements like up-front payment for soloists, increased overtime for stage managers, parental leave for dancers. We’re doing this, together. Expanding how our art form supports artists, together.
So wherever you are and whatever you are doing this Labor Day, remember that you are part of a union – THIS union – our community of solidarity with a shared commitment to positive change.
Happy Labor Day and Solidarity forever!
Ned Hanlon, AGMA President