Klarinet Archive - Posting 000571.txt from 1996/02

From: lou polcari <polcari@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: union?
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 1996 01:14:35 -0500

I too believe in unions. I belong to the Musicians Union and have since the
early 80's, although I've always lived in rural areas (mostly) and what
I've seen may not be an accurate picture, but it has been very discouraging
to me (as a flute player) and my husband (Lou, the clarinetist/sax). Often
jobs come up that are below scale, in fact other union players are playing
and saying ok to these jobs. In one city (pop. 300k) we called the
president of the union to mention some similar problems and he only
compounded the problem by hiring non-union musicians.

Ok, maybe I'm missing the point. Maybe playing in any situation, keeping
live music ALIVE is first and foremost, and getting paid is a nice bonus. I
sure can't live on what I'm making. This is my trade. This is what I work
on day and night, I love playing and I'm good at it and yet I'm being paid
squat!

Should I refuse to play unless I'm paid union scale? Does that mean I just
won't be playing much? Is it only a problem in the smaller cities? What if
all musicians were union, we all played for some serious cash and not a
complimentary dinner or drink or whatever else?

I would appreciate any feedback, either privately or through the list.

Ruth Polcari
polcari@-----.com

----------
From: Randy Blackwell[SMTP:BearCat95@-----.COM]
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 1996 8:21 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list KLARINET
Subject: Re: Union/ Non-union?? Help?

I am one of those people who believes in unionism. The only negatives I
find
are those of apathy among members and (probably because of the apathy but
not
entirely) a certain amount of corruption in certain unions. Let us not
forget that Americans have a certain standard of living which was brought
about by our fathers and grandfathers. The 8 hour day, 40 hour week,
time-and-a-half for overtime, decent wages for an honest days work, health
benefits, retirement plans, etc.. NONE of this was from the goodness of
companies or their managament.

I am an amateur clarinetist and wish I could play pro. I can also assure
you
that I would belong to my musician's union and be active in it if I did
play
pro.