Fame or Famine

A few months ago my husband and I saw a billboard for the Blue Man Group. I was excitedly telling him about the show I saw and how much fun it was, when he turned to me and said, darkly and quietly,

“Scabs.”

…”Beg pardon?”

“Scabs. Non-union. They’re all non-union. They don’t want to pay union rates. The show is filled with scabs.”

Photo Credit: Colleen McNarry-Wilson

Obviously, as individuals who rely on my husband’s salary to keep us going, we have opinions about contractors who use non-union performers and musicians, and, Fabulous Reader, these opinions are not good. They involve a certain amount of cussing and rude gestures.

Essentially, the argument goes that a show can hire anyone it likes. While that’s true, the company fronting this show is making millions of dollars while screwing its cast and crew out of things like pension contributions and reasonable wages and reasonable hours.

There have always been scabs; people will work at cut rates for assholes for many, many reasons; but there is no question that a company who is making money hand-over-fist and yet refusing to contribute to the performance groups is doing something smarmy and underhanded.

Recently Blue Man Group has opened in Canada and there has been something of an uproar.

I have my opinions about a production company deciding not to work with the unions, but what are yours?

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