Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2007-09-01 23:35
>>I suggest you raise heck over this, unless it means that those idiots won't hire you anymore.
>>
But that's what the jerks count on: They figure they'll get away with this nonsense, because their victim won't squawk, because he might lose the gig--and don't we all know how hard it is to get a paying gig. I don't have direct experience with orchestras because I'm an amateur musician getting paid bubkes by Shadow Cat (but she won't pay me not to play, either, so she's stuck with my noise...). However, I've been stiffed in similar ways many, many times as a freelance writer. In the small press business, screwing the writers is standard operating procedure unless the writers band together, which we almost never do, I suppose because we're a bunch of weirdo loners hiding out in our attics. The Screenwriters' Guild is the only writers' union worth half a squeak. Fortunately, musicians, even when non-union, seem to be much more social creatures who do a lot better at networking.
If you're getting rooked, so are other musicians: ask around among the others (especially the tuba players), and join forces to complain by co-signing letters and arranging meetings together as a group with the money people. Try to outnumber the suits and, especially, try to outnumber the chairs in the office where this meeting occurs. Make sure the tallest, heaviest people (this is why you want the tuba players) are the ones standing up. I don't mean to imply you should make physical threats--of course not; you want to be so reasonable and so civil that nobody could possibly use your behavior as an excuse--but the mere physical presence of large people quietly standing over someone who's sitting can have a strangely salutary effect in such situations. (I write this from the point of view of my vertically challenged 5'3" height, btw.)
The people who do the hiring might fire you as a troublemaker if you're all alone out there, but might think twice about whacking four or five people who don't seem prepared to slink away meekly with their mouths shut. If all else fails, turn on the spotlight: If your friendly local newspaper editor resembles most friendly local newsies, he or she would love to publish this story.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
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The Clarinet BBoard
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