[Fmpro] 47 resignation

[Rick Blanc]

I sent this to Local 47 yesterday. 


 To The Executive Board:

 Whereas, the Musician's Union, an institution whose 
 raison d'etre is to serve the interests of rank-and-file
 musicians, is instead complicit in denying work to its
 members through anti-competitive policies and
 practices, policies largely dictated by its ruling
 oligarchy (RMALA) and feudal lord, the lady whose
 membership was a fraud from the beginning
 according to what I've heard, it follows that Local
 47 and the AFM have lost legitimacy.  This miscarriage
 has occurred despite the union's nominal democratic 
 underpinnings and illustrates (again) how easily
 democracy can be hijacked, manipulated.

 And whereas I have no interest in being subject to
 absurd union disciplinary action in furtherance of
 what I consider to be corrupt and managed economic
 (socialist) goals, a hidden agenda wherein the union
 protects the insular interests of the few at the
 expense of the many, I hereby resign my 
 membership in the Professional Musician's Association
 Local 47 effective immediately.

 Henceforth, I shall engage in individual rather than 
 collective negotiation.  The collective process
 manifestly does not inure to my benefit, and it
 deliberately distorts the marketplace.  Union/RMALA
 policy restricts supply and sends demand out of town, 
 violating basic principles of market economics as well
 as the rights of musicians seeking to compete freely
 and fairly for work.  In an economy the strength of the
 American economy today how inept do union bosses
 have to be to mess things up this badly?  So the
 union goes after its membership, the messengers, 
 because the RMA doesn't like the message?  It is
 shameful.

 Further, this resignation can reasonably be
 considered the canary in the mine shaft, a sign of
 things to come unless fundamental change takes
 place.  It would be a perilous strategy indeed to count
 on the membership remaining passive indefinitely, and 
 union coercion may not be what it used to be.

 Rick Blanc
 October 5, 2006