Originally Posted by jmichiel

Hi Wilmer,

I have some general questions about unions. At what point is it useful to join? I am a grad student who is trying to start gigging around town (I just moved to Minneapolis). My rates for weddings and such are above scale, but I have a weekly church gig that is slightly below scale. Would I have to give that up if I joined the union? I remember in high school I did a theatre gig that was non-union and my band teacher was not happy that I was a "scab."

The reason I ask is that I spoke with a former teacher of mine in Syracuse (who is not in the orchestra), where I am thinking about taking an audition, and he told me that members of the Local 78 would probably receive preference in getting invited to the audition. I'm in Syracuse a lot of the time when I'm not in school, but I don't know if joining that union to get a better shot at getting invited to the audition seems like a good idea.

Thanks,
Jimi

PS. I'm sorry if I seem naive, I feel like I'm not really sure what questions to ask, but I know this will be more important as I get older...