Union Put Their Apartments Up for Sale : Chicago Musicians Singing the Blues

For 35 years, the Chicago Musicians Building has been a place for union musicians to live, raise their families and practice their art.

But now the tenants are singing the blues because the Chicago Federation of Musicians is planning to sell the apartment building.

The union can no longer afford to operate the three-story building, which has meant low-cost housing for musicians since 1952, union officials say.

The Chicago union, affiliated with the American Federation of Musicians, has received permission from its 8,000 members to sell the building and is soliciting bids, federation treasurer Ed Ward said this month.

‘Trying to Stay Afloat’

“We’re having our own troubles just trying to stay afloat,” Ward said. “We just sat down and said: ‘It’s time to get out of the real estate business.”’

About 25 of the building’s 31 apartments are occupied, Ward said, although he did not know the exact number of occupants.

Some of the residents said they object to the sale plans.

“It was supposed to be nonprofit,” said John M. Young, a resident for 32 years. “We don’t have any empathy on the (union’s) board of directors.”

Young said all but two of the occupied units are rented to black musicians. He said black union members have little pull with the predominantly white federation.

Residents ‘Handpicked’

Young, 65, is a jazz piano player. He moved into the building in 1955.

“People were handpicked” to live in the building, Young said. “You know, musicians who wouldn’t make a lot of noise or disturb the neighborhood.”

The building on the city’s South Side was bought by the federation’s then all-black Local 208 in the 1950s, he said. In the late 1960s, Local 208 merged with the all-white Local 210 and, he said, “lost all influence in the building.”

But union officials said the reasons for their decision are strictly financial. Because of declining membership, the federation has lost money for several years, $300,000 last year alone, said Ken Sweet, the union’s recording secretary.

During the 1960s the federation was riding high with a peak of 14,000 members, he said. The current membership is 8,000.

Non-Union Competition

“It’s a necessary step, because of competition from non-union bands and disc jockeys,” Sweet said of the sale plans.