I like to think I'm smart in a political way. Surely this country has become an ongoing heated debate about the right and wrong way to move forward. Every single social malady is blamed on the policies of the other guy. If you look at history you get a little perspective about political people. Political people, really aren't all that smart, but gosh they sure are clever. The real long term thinkers stay out of politics because they just can't take the beating politicians love to deliver and they lose their will to think from fighting incessant small minded battles. We hear a lot about what the "framers" meant and wanted when they were writing our sacred constitution. Read a bit of history, and you quickly see that these learned men (that built this perfect foundation on which we stand and should never question) were just as knuckleheaded as the dopes that are arguing about whether or not consenting adults should be allowed to get married to one another. Some of us can marry, but some of us can't. The ones they like…can. But the ones that scare them?…They can't. Just like back in the day when the framers wrote that all men were created equal but it took until 1964 to write yet another amendment forcing politicians (who swear to uphold the constitution) to abide by those words in the constitution.
This teaches you that since the beginning this perfect document is actually a moving target. The gun is whoever has the most money that day, and you put the finger on the trigger with your vote. So the Koch brothers install a Governor who decides suddenly to disband all the rules that make a union possible. Believe what you want about how organized labor is ruining jobs, I know this…
I've been in a union for over 20 years. This union saved me from many abuses, hardships and illnesses I surely would have had if I didn't have 100,000 fellow actors agreeing to what was fair. Everyone knows the story about the teamsters that sit around all day and collect too much money. We also know about actors have died on non-union shoots.
You can assign all the philosphy you want on how the economy is being harmed by unions or how the policies of the left, right, centrist will not lead to jobs and financial recovery, but I know one thing to be true; without my union stating up front what could be asked of me, I would never have gotten as far as I have.
Never.
Even as a member of the union I have been asked to skirt those rules in the name of "making a better show." No actor begins acting the very second they arrive on set. We think all day and night about the work ahead. We are always working mentally toward making a better show. What we are being asked to do to "make a better show" is save the production money. Money that can then be spent on shooting more or something like that.
The idea that actors, or any labor union, without the protections of a collective bargaining agreement would do better for themselves is ludicrous. The argument that it protects bad apples from being fired makes me smile and say; how many bankers have been fired since the congressinal report on how the banking meltdown occurred? How many criminal charged have been filed aginst bankers that broke the law? The constitution has rules in place about breaking the law. But it seems the rules can be bent depending on who has their finger on the trigger.
I know the Governor in Wisconsin is wrong. I just know it. Destroying unions isn't about doing right by the people. Unions weren't started by goverment, they were started by people. It has to be about that moveable target called justice and freedom that the constitution speaks of and who has the gun and who is really pulling the trigger.