Film Union Nativism

It can’t be easy to be a union representative in a right to work state. Union supporters ignore that private sector unions only have significant membership where those in certain industries and professions are forced to join. In a right to work state, like New Mexico, private sector unions often resort to bitterly protesting any work not awarded to one of their affiliates regardless of requirements, cost, qualifications or consumer choice. Many of the unions in New Mexico are subsidiaries of those in forced unionization states resulting in this attitude of entitlement. One of the tactics often employed is nativism, attempting to tar any non-union work as unsatisfactory because it supposedly enriches those outside of the state at the detriment of New Mexicans.

Local film workers union business agent Jon Hendry has mined the nativism well in a flaccid attempt to prompt controversy over recent NMDOT anti-drunkdriving advertisements done by an Albuquerque firm who brought in a producerand director from California. "There's no reason to bring in the production from out of state" because it’s “like bringing in green chile from Texas", According to Hendry in a logic defying opinion playing on the historical New Mexican distrust of Texans. He continues by stating that brining in out of state producers discourages New Mexico students pursuing film careers here, offering no proof whatsoever. Hendry’s thinnest gruel comes when he supports his assertions by citing the box office success of “The Avengers” movie, of which much (but not all) was filmed in New Mexico. I didn’t realize that director Joss Whedon was a New Mexican. He isn’t. Maybe Marvel Studios is based in Corrales. It isn’t. Paramount perhaps? Nope. To Hendry, it’s apparently reasonable to cite a production that involved a Non New Mexican director and producers in support of a nativist argument against the same.

But of course, that’s not the point. Nowhere does Hendy mention any actual names of qualified New Mexicans or make any objective arguments against the personnel chosen for the NMDOT advertisements. That does not mean that there are no New Mexicans who could have done them, but NMDOT stated a certain preference and the firm charged with carrying out that preference made a decision based on experience. It happens and is a result of the free market. To the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 480, the free market doesn’t matter. That’s because in right to work New Mexico, the local 480 is nothing but a parasitic entity. Hendry’s argument is nothing but a bullying tactic to coerce others into hiring their members. The local 480’s very existence relies on such tactics because if their members aren’t getting paid, neither are they.