And this is where unions can be more of a pain to artists than a help

The worker’s union, in a time, they stood for good things like worker safety and a wage that one can live off of.

Nowadays however, they have grown to where they can demand that you join them and give them some of your income, in other cases they can even require you to do union-approved work if you even want to remain a member, such as what happened here.

Apparently, working on a sound-track for the indie game The Banner Saga did not count as union work and the musicians union that he was a member of has demanded the payment of a fine if he wanted to stay a member. Instead he has decided to leave, noting that he would rather spend the money towards helping people achieve their dreams rather than remain in adherence to strict rules and regulations.

In a sense, someone needs to tell the unions to get back to dealing with real issues such as abusive deadlines and bosses and dangerous conditions as opposed to writing up regulations on what jobs one can and cannot do.

Thoughts?

So this guy is perfectly happy getting union scale for his work in Los Angeles, but when he goes off to Texas to scab for a company his union is has contract disputes with, undermining their work on behalf of all their members, you think it’s the union that has a problem and should get “back” to dealing with abusive bosses and unrealistic deadlines?

Do you have any idea what the basic function of a union is? It is to be able to negotiate with employers from a basis of controlling the supply of labor (in this case music composing). This guy is undermining the very basis of the union he joined and benefitted from for as long as he was a member.

Double post, deleted after crash

You can get 5 or more illegal workers here for the price I charge and I do not earn much. That is the truth. Government and big business is soo happy. That’s why so an so is giving them all drivers license.
I think we need big, strong, powerful and loyal to the worker union. That is the only cure I can see.
Did I break my own rule posting this?

There are politicians in the corporate wings of all political parties who are happy to align themselves with big business. But it’s not why so-and-so is giving ‘them’ drivers licences. I assume you’re American and upset about ‘illegal aliens’ getting any kind of document from any level of American goverment.

Did you know most American Police Chiefs are in favor of everyone having a driver’s licence if they are driving? Maybe it’s because they have to deal with the fallout from people recklessly speeding away from a routine traffic stop because they don’t have a driver’s licence to show the officer. And surely you know driver’s licences are a State responsibility?

Government is not supposed to be ‘doing what the rich guy in the big house on the hill wants’ anymore. We tried to get away from that a couple centuries ago by forming what amounts to a big, strong, powerful union of the people who live in a nation. Government is nothing more, really, than the rules we make for ourselves to follow, so we can live together peacefully with our neighbors and provide for the common welfare, along with the people we select to make those rules and other people we hire to enforce them.

Seems to me the problem is that ‘big strong powerful union’ isn’t all that loyal to the worker anymore. That can be fixed, though, if all the workers vote, every time. The only way the corporate wings of the political parties get to run things is when only 38% of the people show up at the polls.