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by citilife 1230 days ago
I'm just going to go out on a limb -- unions in a artistic field are very difficult to maintain. There are alternatives to hiring (contract workers), plenty of would-be artists looking for work, now you have the AI competing. Finally, businesses can often do without the "best" art.

Where's the leverage? What theyre asking for is..

> so we walked—forgoing pay to fight for livable wages, codified diversity measures, and union security.

Oh boy...

> livable wages

I haven't seen the exact terms, but "livable wage" is often referred to, but very open ended. I'd never pay a person a "livable wage", I'd pay them fair market rate. Unfortunately, that's the reality. Most of the time, that's livable, but I cannot hire a 5 hour / week maid for a "livable wage", I hire them for the job they do.

This demand will push the company to use more contract labor IMO. There's hundreds of people looking for these roles / gigs, why deal with a union demanding rates higher than others would be willing to work for?

> codified diversity

This 100% of the time means incorporating some sort of "-ism" into the company. Might be an unpopular opinion in these parts, but the truth is that you cannot combat racism with racism. Setting up double-blind hiring practices might be possible or promotion boards, but in the end... it's more about culture and trying to look past physical traits (that said, fully support double-bling hiring/promotion methods).

In the end, the company might not legally be able to meet these demands. That said, many companies are doing illegal things like promoting based on race today.

> union security

Not sure what this means, but isn't this what union dues are supposed to cover?

2 comments

> I'm just going to go out on a limb -- unions in a artistic field are very difficult to maintain.

Say bye to your limb: Hollywood is the poster child of unionization in an artistic field.

It’s also a stagnant environment that only exists because it’s so monies that all smaller artists are choked out at the theatres.
In the age of streaming, that's really, really not true.

The only choking is the sum of all our free time.

You think publishing is different?
> but I cannot hire a 5 hour / week maid for a "livable wage"

Nobody is asking you to. This isn't what anyone, not one single solitary person, is asking. Unless you're also asking your maid to sign a non-compete.

What a ... poor poor example just to make a point.

> Oh boy...

Indeed