Launching my 2026 campaign

When I was elected General Secretary in 2022, it was one of the highlights of my life. An incredible honour to be chosen to lead the Musicians' Union for five years and I felt a great sense of responsibility, both to those who had elected me and to those who had voted for other candidates but who I would still represent. I wanted to prove my worth.

One of my central election pledges had been to represent all musicians equally. As the first woman to lead the Union, I knew that I had received many votes from musicians from under represented groups in our membership and I wanted to make structural changes to ensure they felt heard and seen.

I introduced the MU Members' Assembly, with the support of the Executive Committee and our staff team, which is a diverse and represented policy forum of members. The Members' Assembly is now into its second two year term. Linton Stephens led the first two years as Chair and now we have Sarah Sayeed from London and Ben Lunn from Scotland co-chairing. They are supported by DJ Mexy from the Midlands and Bridget Walsh, also from London, as Vice Chairs. The diversity of this group speaks to the representative and inclusive nature of the Assembly as a whole. I am really excited to see what the group achieves in its two years.

Another change I instigated was introducing reserved seats for under-represented musicians to our Executive Committee. While the EC has always been a diverse group in some ways, certainly in terms of geography and musically, it has not always been as representative of the full membership as I felt it could be. Elections don't always guarantee diversity and I felt structural change was needed to make sure it wasn't left to chance. This has led to two reserved seats being added for Global Majority members this year and two for young members. To my knowledge, we have never had ring-fenced young member seats before. The EC has also grown in size, which means more members have a chance to have their say and influence the direction of the MU.

I believe this change will lead to better decision and policy making on the EC. Diversity of thought and experience always improves outcomes. I look forward to meeting our new EC members when the election process is complete.

As well as looking internally at our structures, and changing culturally so that we are more inclusive and accessible to members and supportive of our brilliant staff team, we have been bold and strong in our campaigning, lobbying and in negotiations. I am not your classic table-thumping General Secretary but I am strong for members on a range of key issues, from protecting jobs and live music to fighting for a better deal on Generative AI and music streaming.

We carried out several successful industrial action ballots in the orchestral sector. We also achieved a new agreement with Northern Ballet, who had moved to recorded music on tour but are now using a live band again.

Given the rise in membership of around 5,000 members, we are growing in strength and I believe we have a fanstastic reputation in the industry, in politics and in the wider trade union movement.

Of course I can't take sole credit for any of our achievements. The MU has over 60 staff and thousands of activists who work hard to better the lives of musicians across the UK. I am proud to be your General Secretary and I love what I do.

If there are other candidates for General Secretary, then I will use this website to keep you up to date on my campaign and my plans for the next five years.

I hope you will support me in my re-election so I can continue my work and the MU can take the next steps in its evolution.

Please reach out to me on email if you have any questions or suggestions: pohlnaomi@gmail.com