Uh oh! It's the "U" word.
Recently I was reading an article on line which detailed salaries and benefits for people working in the broadcast industry. Guess what folks? Its pretty dismal for those of you working in the radio portion of the craft. All too often I hear of people complaining about the lack of benefits or low pay; that the industry is going to hell in a handbag and its not what it used to be.
One of the main reasons it used to pay and offer better benefits is because many shops back in the 40's, 50's & 60's were heavily unionized and as such bargained for their terms and conditions of employment which were much more favorable then their non-union counterparts.
In the radio heydays, you had Musicians in the AFM, Directors in the DGA, Engineers in NABET or IBEW, announcers in AFTRA, Teamsters in support groups. It seemed like just about everyone in medium or major market station belonged to a union or guild. Then the 1960's arrived and with it a resistance to unions by corporations looking to reduce their overhead.
Company's started phasing out their unionized house orchestras/bands to save money and once the drama and entertainment shows went away, directors were no longer needed. Finally stations started eliminating on-air operating engineers in medium markets, instead turning over the controls to the Disc Jockey's. Most major market stations held out until the early 1980's and finally turned to combo operations at almost all music stations. Today many stations that maintain engineering staffs are the news/talk formatted stations. In many cases they are non-union, the unions having been bought out years ago.
So why have a union in the first place? If you sit down and think about it; when you purchase a new car, whats the first thing you do? You sit down with the salesman and bargain over price and when you agree you draw up a contract stipulating the terms of the purchase (paint color, seat material, A/C package, etc); you do this to protect yourself; its a simple business deal. Just like having a contract to spell out the terms and conditions of your employment relationship with your employer.
I wonder how many of you realized that most executives from corporations all have personal service agreements (PSA's) which are labor contracts; just like the ones the unions have. It spells out the terms and conditions of their employment; how much severance pay they get; their medical benefits; pension, stock options, vacation, spending accounts, etc. So my question to you the reader is: If Executives need a labor contract; how come you don't???
Say what you will about unions, but they definitely have their place in society. I've always been a supporter of the labor movement in this country; indeed I've seen so many good people get screwed over thru no fault of their own and being that the United States has among the worst labor laws in the industrialized world, excepting South Africa, its no wonder that unions are needed.
Unions now comprise a very small part of the radio workforce; that's the way management likes it; they have almost total control over their employees and want to keep it that way. Only until employees realize the benefits of being union will they continue to be exploited and used.
