My experiences with unions were usually not music related, though they told me that I would have more jobs if I joined the union. I declined and had all the jobs I could handle.

Once, while trying to unload a demo booth in New York's Jacob Javits Center, when I backed up my van to the loading dock and began to unload, a burly guy came up to me and said that no one but a union loader could place the gear on the loading dock and it would cost me $50 bucks to have him do it. I shelled out the money, he gave me a receipt and allowed me to wheel the cartload of gear into the center and then had to pay another $50 to have the booth set up. I looked around for an electrical outlet, to run the equipment, and the closest one was about 100 feet away. Though I had an extension cord long enough to reach it, I was told that only a union electrician was allowed to plug it in and the fee was, you guessed it, another $50. Then, when I went back to park the van, well, that was $50 a day and no guarantees that you would even see it again - no security on the parking lot. I didn't care, it was a rental van that the company rented just for this job. I took the Amtrak back to Baltimore that night and was glad to be out of NYC, and away from the damned unions.

My dad was a Teamster Union member for more than 40 years, paid a lot in dues, and they only helped him when a trucking company denied him employment due to his age, which at the time was 60. He had lost his previous truck driving job after 35 years when the company moved to another state. A union leader went to the place that denied him employment and told the company that if they didn't hire him that day, they would have a picket line around the entire building by tomorrow morning. My dad was hired that night, and worked there for the next 10 years as a yard jockey. For those that don't know what a yard jockey is, it is the person that backs the big rig trailers to the loading dock of a warehouse, often just 6 inches apart. There are very few drivers that can actually do this.

All the best,

Gary