Klarinet Archive - Posting 000474.txt from 1998/06

From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
Subj: [kl] AFM
Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 00:31:27 -0400

David Blumberg and I exchanged e-mail today about the Nevada Symphony vs.
the Las Vegas local of the AFM (I won't quote his first post, which some
joker in Nevada wrote in allcaps), and I thought I'd post part of a message
I sent him just now, to see what the reaction will be..

David remarked:

>Here's how low the mgt. of a Symphony can go - when the Phila. Orch. was on
>strike, the Mgt. refered them as entertainers!

And I replied:

Oh, yeah. Management in any field cares only about the bottom line on the
quarterly P&L sheet, and the arts are no different. What makes it worse for
musicians is that we've settled for poverty pay, as the alternative to none
at all, for too long. Forever, I suppose. Read biographies of the
composers, most of whom lived on the charity of some rich noble, until the
19th century, when patrons got scarce and they had to concertize to buy
groceries, or teach, or work at a day job.

Nowadays, when we slaves try to get a small improvement in our pay and
working conditions, an employer's reaction is a lot like the one we'd have
if we were suddenly bitten by a pet dog. He can't believe it, and he's
furious.

I grew up in a railroad union town, and I've belonged to NABET as well as
the musicians' union. Too bad the AFM, like most unions today, has become
toothless, ineffective and all but irrelevant. We really need it. Of
course, it was we who destroyed it, by accepting scab jobs until the union
lost all its clout, and even loyalists like me finally decided we were
getting less than nothing for our dues.

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