In the United States, virtually any major city (top ten in population size) will have labor or production unions. To work for a major radio or television network in one of these cities, there is almost certainty that you will be required to join a union. This has both positive and negative things as a result.

Depending on the venue location, you may be required by the facility to hire only union based labor – effectively killing the freelance market.

Smaller, independent production companies find it very hard to compete or provide services at the largest venues and still make a profit.

I’ve personally worked at a very large named venue in the Chicago area as a grip for an event, and the only reason I was allowed to do so was that the people that rented the facility had made the concession that the lighting and cleaning crews were to be union.

The production truck crew were employed by the production company, and the crew I was hired with were all freelance at a day rate given the short notice and inadequate staffing level the production company had.

Other venues, outside of the city limits had much more relaxed policies regarding union involvement.

Another production I freelanced with was at a major corporation’s corporate headquarters. We subcontracted out the lighting for television, and hired an engineer at day rate for support, and the crew I was with did the cameras and other duties.

Much of what I do freelance at present is editing, and single camera video ENG based. I have full time employment at a production facility outside of the city limits, so we’re not forced to utilize union crews until we rent a major venue.

I hope this clears it up a bit for you.

Max

As an American in the UK, you are probably aware that large parts of the entertainment business here are unconnected to the traditional theatre and broadcast unions such as BECTU. Even in the union heartlands of theatre, I have heard of some employers trying to move toward commercial labour companies to reduce crewing costs.

Many production technical staff (including myself) are not union members. Legislation against the “closed shop” has made the UK labour market truly “free”. As in all business, employers only put up with unions if they think they have to….