[Dixielandjazz] Musician's Union

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

I hate to agree with you but unfortunately that's SOP.  For awhile there was 
a rule about union officials playing gigs but I think that's all gone now.\
Larry
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Gunter" <jazzboard at hotmail.com>
To: <JohnWilder at Comcast.net>; <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 11:58 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Musician's Union


> Friends,
>
> The articulate and knowledgeable Johnny Wilder posted a very enlightening
> story about his Musician's Union experiences. I certainly read about
> Johnny's experiences with great interest!
>
> There is another long long story about negotiations between the AFM and 
> the
> Sacramento Dixieland Jubilee (as it was then known). Bill Borcher (founder
> of the Jubilee) was at the forefront of those negotiations and I got to
> watch all the action being on the Board of Directors at the time.
>
> I won't go into it all, but it was rather funny.  Basically the settlement
> resulted in the loss of "bonus funds" which were paid to the musicians 
> later
> on (after they had been paid for their sets and the remaining funds in the
> Jubilee receipts had been deposited).  The Jubilee worked on their 
> upcoming
> budget and the money left over was distributed to the individual musicians
> in the form of a bonus (which varied from year to year).
>
> The union required a fixed set fee for the musicians and the bonuses
> disappeared.
>
> But it's more complicated than that and I don't want to go into it all.
>
> My favorite union story involves a band I know of and all of the guys were
> union members. The leader wondered why they never got recommended for gigs
> by the local which the union guys had said they would do.
>
> So the leader asked his wife to call the union and pose as a person
> interested in a certain kind of band and ask the union who (whom?) they
> would recommend. She described her husband's band (which was rather unique
> and quite popular).
>
> The union guy said he had "just the band for her" and recommended the band
> led by the president of the union. The wife said that she had heard that
> there was a band called (she named her husband's band) and asked what the
> union thought of them.
>
> The union guy replied that they were an ok band, but that (the band the
> union president led) was far superior and was really the one she should
> book.
>
> The wife thanked the union dude and hung up.
>
> After she told her husband and the rest of the guys in the band about the
> conversation everyone in the band (including the leader) resigned from the
> union.
>
> End of story.
>
> I don't know what is complicated or surprising in stories like these and 
> the
> ones Johnny Wilder related.  That's just the way things operate . . . it's
> SOP (Standard Operating Procedure).
>
> Respectfully submitted,
>
> Bill "Union? What Union?" Gunter
> jazzboard at hotmail.com
>
>
>
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