I joined the Musicians Union when I was still in New York City, and when I moved to Los Angeles, I transferred my membership to California. I still think of membership in The Musician's Union as an important step for any musician. Of course I'm no fool when it comes to the fact that then as there is today there is a lot of non-union work and that musicians are often "between jobs" and can't necessarily afford to turn down a non-union job. But it's the musician union that tries to keep the pay livable and through documentation of recording projects, provides a pension.
Click on the title above to be taken to link for the Musician's Union, Professional Musicians Local 47.
When I joined the headquarters were in Hollywood on Vine near Melrose and Max Herman was the President - The God Almighty! - for years. He had several terms. He was tough - ruthless some thought - and he threw more than one friend of mine out of the Union. He had people going around from one recording studio to the next busting in to find non-union sessions.
No comments:
Post a Comment