Big Temporary Networks

Tue Sep 18 22:22:51 UTC 2012

> From: William Herrin <bill at herrin.us>
> Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:47:34 -0400
> Subject: Re: Big Temporary Networks
>
> On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 4:11 PM, Jo Rhett <jrhett at netconsonance.com> wrote:
> > On Sep 14, 2012, at 8:53 AM, Jay Ashworth wrote:
> >>> Tech had a person managing the feed to DragonCon from the dedicated
> >>> room w/ the polycomm video conference system, for panels, in addition
> >>> to the actual union operator of the camera & such.
> >>
> >> The camera ops had to be union?  Hmmm.  Ah, Chicago.  Yes.
> >
> > That has been true everywhere that Worldcon has been for a
> > number of years, excluding Japan.  Hotel union contracts
> > generally forbid activity being done by any non-union people,
> > even if they are the guests.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law
>
> ''A "right-to-work" law is a statute that prohibits union security
> agreements, or agreements between labor unions and employers that
> govern the extent to which an established union can require employees'
> membership [...] as a condition of employment. Right-to-work laws
> exist in twenty-three U.S. states,''

'Right to work', as defined by section 14 B of the Taft-Hartley Act, only
prevents a union contract that requiures union membership as a PRE-REQUISITE 
for being hired.  What is called  'closed shop' -- where employment is 
closed to those who are not union members.
It does -not- prevent a 'union ship' -- where employees are required to
join the union within a reasonable period =after= being hired.

Right-to-work also does not prevent an organization from requiring, by
contractual agreement, that third parties performing work ON THE 
0ORGANIZATION'S PREMISES, employ "union labor" for _that_ work.  It 
cannot specify _what_ union (or local) however.   

bTW, I'm a card-carrying member, and official, of the (independant) 
"Amalgamated Tinkerers and Gadgeteers", anyone interested in setting up
their own local is invited to contact me.  *GRIN*