Music unions are like any other, I suppose.
Employees band together to negotiate for better conditions and pay.
Nothing wrong with that.
For years I never understood the power though.
Why can’t a company – or in this case a club – simply hire another musician who is not striking and asking for more?
Guitar players, drummers, software developers, accountants, and roofers are fairly fungible – right?
Welp: It’s not that simple.
I mean, I have thought about this a good bit: And it’s good work if you can get it!
Later, I found out that the main reason I was hired was because I was a member of the musicians’ union, which I joined only because I thought I had to be in at least one performers’ union, and the musicians’ was the cheapest. Sylvia had been told that if she didn’t hire a union worker, pronto, the place would be shut down.
-Steve Martin, Born Standing Up (Amazon)