Klarinet Archive - Posting 000570.txt from 1996/04

From: Mark Charette <charette@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Amateur players and paying gigs
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 13:27:39 -0400

Steve Prescott wrote:
> In my humble opinion, the union offers nothing to musicians. We are
> still playing for low wages and many times in the worst of
> circumstances.

If in fact you belong to a union - remember, you ARE the union. If your
representatives take your money and don't do anything about your
working conditions, then they aren't representing you at all. Give
your money to a reputable charity or change your representatives.

This goes for politicians as well ;^)

Junior membership in a musicians union might not be a bad thing -
at least the membership would know who's playing where.

When I was playing gigs on bass guitar way back when I sure could have
used some representation when arguing over payment with a few bar
owners (who were mostly bigger than me ;^( )
--
Mark Charette "Languages come; languages go--only Fortran is for
Mika Systems, Inc the ages." - Jim Glass
charette@-----.com