
An early job, when I was about sixteen was with the
PG&E unloading wood from, railway cars.
My mentors were two, what I considered then ancient laborers of about
fifty. They were Union, and morning and
afternoon took their negotiated fifteen to thirty-minute breaks, allowing me to
tag along with them to the local tavern: a respite from the 100+ degree heat in
the boxcar. I forget how, but my status
in their company allowed me to have my first morning beers and allowed me
access to a lovely bartender who taught me cribbage and enabled my high school
friendships to blossom as I became the purveyor of beverage for my underage friends.
Another job near that time was a manufacturing job:
metal labels for office equipment. I
learned to stamp press, package and ship and actually felt like a journeyman on
his way to learning a trade, a feat that used to be a Union function. I don’t
remember the shop as being Union. The
owner’s daughter, two years behind me in high school, was infatuated, something
I didn’t handle too well. I don’t know
if her feelings got me hired or fired, when our romance became troubling to
daddy, who sent her to live for a while with her aunt.
Fast forward forty years or so when I found myself
hired as Dental Director for a Union company with a major client the Las
Vegas Hotel and Employees union. I
remember the accommodations required: the different hiring and firing process,
the need to use Union labor for all exhibit presentations; the need to use a
Union shipping company (brown shorts and all), the “bug” on every publication.
And about that time I proudly joined AFTRA in an
effort to bolster my lagging acting career.
AFTRA was a loose Union, easy to get into, relatively inexpensive,
pretty non-restrictive to other than Union auditions, without a lot of benefits
other than a little more money when the job was a Union/non-Union job. I never made enough money to qualify for
medical-dental benefits, nor to have any retirement benefit. I longed to meet the requirements to join SAG
or even AEA, where the jobs paid more and the benefits were greater.
Last year a new Union was formed; formed because
only a small percent of SAG members found meaningful work. The onerous requirement of having been cast
in three SAG projects went away and job opportunity was thought to improve since
projects could be cast with SAG/AFTRA members who were paid at SAG or AFTRA
level, depending on which they held.
Hasn’t happened.
As SAG/AFTRA I am now forbidden to audition for any non-Union
or “Other” projects, except for Print.
Where, as AFTRA I might submit through LA Casting for more than 50
auditions a week, I now have weeks where there are none I am qualified for by
Union status or age. Yesterday there were
52 postings and only one for my age and qualifications.


The idea of a secure retirement after working for a
company for twenty-plus years doesn’t noodle out when workers move to four or
more jobs in a career. Even Japan has
scrapped its “cradle to grave” work philosophy.
That is one reason why I feel the entire tax code
has to be rewritten, and the individual has to become more involved in
healthcare.
Unfortunately, with the present constituents and mood
of Congress there is little likelihood of significant change in the near
future.
My next post will be more positive as I describe my
concerns over what I call The Elements of External Wonder. I think you’ll like it.