I'm as pro-union as they come, but let's not pretend that the film and theater unions are an unalloyed good. It's true that the top is not limited for people w

I'm as pro-union as they come, but let's not pretend that the film and theater unions are an unalloyed good. It's true that the top is not limited for people who make millions of dollars, but the bottom is fairly restrictive, and that has a negative impact on many many actors/performers. For example, once you are an Actors Equity member, you can not do non-Equity work, except with special exemptions. You are also required to join equity once you do a certain number of Equity weeks - this means that I know people who luck into one Equity show early in their career, have to join Equity, and then are locked out of swaths of theatrical work because they're Equity. At the same time, though, they don't have enough of a resume to keep getting Equity work. SAG and AFTRA have similar policies. I agree they've done a good job at curbing abuses, and again, I'm pro-union overall, but the film/tv/theater unions definitely force some tough decisions for the lower end of the worker spectrum