My Eastern brother and namesake, I'm afraid you've missed my larger point by not carefully reading both my first serious response and the inference to Julie's last point thoroughly.
A corrupt union (oxymoron alert) such as SIEU, the Teamsters still led by a Hoffa or either of the teacher unions representing truly skilled through to a-pickin'/grinnin' banjo players serving Holy Mother Church is a marriage made in Hell, any way you slice it. mrcopper got it right even with the impotence of a benign union such as local musicians unions (of which I've been a member.)
We're not exploited if we don't allow ourselves to be. And by comparison to coal miners in West Virginia and the appalachians, I wouldn't dare compare whatever woes we have to what they undergo, ever. And I won't even remark upon the concept of martyr musicians, given what's happening to Christians in Asia.
Many thread topics occasionally invoke JS Bach for some purpose or another. Well, as I read and fleshed out his bio in Grove's in a semester seminar back in the day, I deemed him to be the role model of a genius musician who labored, particularly in Leipzig, under incredibly demanding and hardly pleasant circumstances. Would that we could now chase our choristers around with a large stick! But he, like Gregory the Great, Pius X and our very Lord, embodied "suffering servant of the servants." And it took JSB a couple of moves to get to Leipzig, presumably learning how to deal with "exploitation" throughout it all.
I never endorsed the "We must work only for soli Deo gloria, and be joyful without recompense." But having a union boss speak for me would be like having a little cartoon red devil sitting right next to my ear. Not a chance.

One thing that must be done, however, and might even be effective in this Francis age is to make bishops aware that their very legal offices are advising pastors not to use contracts and why that is almost immoral. What is legally expedient and smart is not always moral, and this is one of those cases.

But having a union boss speak for me would be like having a little cartoon red devil sitting right next to my ear. Not a chance.

Compelling imagery, and I sympathize entirely; I imagine if there ever were a church musicians' union (which is a very big if, I know) one would not want someone like Jimmy Hoffa in charge. Talk about cognitive dissonance!

My only point is that in an ideal world it would be beneficial to have some sort of structure in place someday that could help prevent the kind of abuses/injustices we're all familiar with. How that could be set up or administered, I have no idea, and maybe something will have to be invented.

I just think of my own daughter who aspires to be a church organist someday and how good it would be if she could look forward to a professional sacred music career that is worth the time and training required. As things are now, I hesitate to encourage her to invest too much in that direction. Maybe that's the way things have always been for musicians, but isn't it worth exploring possible solutions to make things better?

BTW, I recall that Bishop Sample included this helpful directive in his recent pastoral letter, which is certainly a step in the right direction:

Pastors should see that musicians and those who direct them have opportunities for continuing education and authentic liturgical formation through agencies and events approved by the Bishop. In accord with the Church’s teaching on economic justice, pastors are to ensure that those who direct sacred music in the parish receive just compensation for their time and skills, commensurate with their experience and level of training.

I wish we could clone the good bishop and place copies of him across the country.

I wonder if anyone will listen to me pour out my heart about getting fired as choir director recently, without any warning, on such an outdated and dusty thread. Dusty attics are always a good place to pour out your soul since there's likely no one there.

It hurts. I love our church's music and was so grateful to be hired here in September, 2018, at St Ann's in Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada (population about 10,000 in Quesnel). Praying every day that God would bless the music ministry and make my dreams come true for His glory, not my own. The pastor is a family friend who invited us to work here, my wife as youth minister and me as choir director. We moved with our 2 young children from Vancouver, 500 miles away.

The parish loved what I was doing. There was a ton of affirmation from the choir members as well. I was raising the bar and leading as best as I could; I was learning to lead by being a leader. I graduated from Music School, sang in a high-caliber ROTR choir in Vancouver for 5 years, and had more musical understanding than most volunteer music ministers in this diocese, and hence I was hired for my skills and experience.

Then I got called in a month ago by the pastor who told me very gravely that I was not displaying good enough leadership skills. Because he is being transferred to a new church soon, he didn't want to hand the responsibility of finding me a "leadership mentor" to the new pastor. Because I had received no warning and feedback or managerial support, they fired me with severance to be fair according to our provincial labour standards. It happened on the same day that we committed to buying a house here in Quesnel; after all, everything was going great and we wanted to put down roots. I had no forewarning that this would happen.

I recognize I need to be a better leader. No doubt about it. I wish they would have given me a heads up before getting fired. Then I could have reached out to people to mentor me in this area. Isn't that what a normal management is supposed to do?

I love our church music so much and it saddens me that they are de facto turning me into another unpaid volunteer who will maintain liturgical music status quo, or even lower the bar. I wish I had a union to protect my right to managerial support and protect our trade: quality liturgical music for the glory of God and the edification of our parishes.

Sincerely crying in the attic,
Jonathan

My prayers for you and your family.

Jonathan

Here is my general rule of thumb when employed in the field of sacred music.

Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation.

Humble thy heart, and endure: incline thy ear, and receive the words of understanding: and make not haste in the time of clouds.

Wait on God with patience: join thyself to God, and endure, that thy life may be increased in the latter end.

Take all that shall be brought upon thee: and in thy sorrow endure, and in thy humiliation keep patience.

For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.

Believe God, and he will recover thee: and direct thy way, and trust in him. Keep his fear, and grow old therein.

Sirach 1:1-6

That said, we all can sympathize with you. If you follow the status quo it’s much “safer” for your own temporal well-being. But in the end it’s better to serve the Lord and not the status quo.

We commend you to the heart of Jesus and Mary and Joseph.

I might offer this for your meditation from my meager apostolate web page: (In particular, the second sorrow is quite fitting to our circumstance of being ousted for doing what is right)

http://silverwingsofthedove.org/the-seven-dolors-of-the-b-v-m

Meh. Angling for more power in a diminishing market is like investing in zeppelins after Hindenberg.

I wish I couldn't relate to so much of what you have written here, @jcr

Unfortunately, I've been through a lot, and I'm certainly not the only one. St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle...

"For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation." Thanks be to God, and thank you @francis

What about the American Federation of Musicians? They include freelancers as well as full-time musicians in their union. Does anyone here suppose this could be useful for our specific field? (I'm genuinely unsure what to say about this question -- I can see it going both ways.)

https://www.afm.org/

When you can hire aspiring not-quite musicians for a pittance, why pay scale?

Fixed it for ya!!

Let me add this: a lot of parishes hire not-quite- musicians who are also not-quite-knowledgeable of Catholic liturgical practices and expectations. They're even cheaper!!

There have been a number of rather long threads on this topic, you can look them up...I can summarize...there are all sorts of organizations already, AGO, NPM CMAA etc, but none of them have any TEETH. The ONLY way this would work is if it was approached like a real labor union, that is ALL who work for the union refuse to work unless demands are met. I believe that presently this is difficult to envision or impossible.

If you look at even a cursory history of unions in the US, you will see that nothing gets changed until a large enough block of workers hold back their services - and it actually starts to hurt employers...enough that they actually negotiate.

If that WERE to happen, (seems fairly far fetched) I can see several things flowing from it:

1. The Catholic hierarchy would just dismiss everyone and hire non union people. This is most likely I think. (of course it would be done in such a way as to be made to appear "the only right thing to do")
2. because church musicians are already so low paid, most live paycheck to paycheck, and most people would break the union and go back to work simply to survive. REMEMBER, in US labor unions, the only reason that workers could strike for extended periods, is because the union supported them financially! With such a small union - we would be hard pressed to gather 1000 members I would think, there is no way we could support strikes over an extended time -in comparison to the UAW for example:

The UAW is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. It has more than 391,000 active members and more than 580,000 retired members in over 600 local unions, and holds 1,150 contracts with some 1,600 employers.

I think further discussion is pointless, sorry to say.

Even more pointed: after wrangling $25 million in the 'coronavirus relief' bill, the Kennedy Center laid off all its (union) musicians. Some 'strength' there, no?

As long as we are jawing....responding to JulieColl above:

My only point is that in an ideal world it would be beneficial to have some sort of structure in place someday that could help prevent the kind of abuses/injustices we're all familiar with. How that could be set up or administered, I have no idea, and maybe something will have to be invented.

The AGO DID for decades have rule whereby if a member was found to be "unreasonably terminated" (Can't recall the wording), AGO members were forbidden to interview for or accept that position. This rule was in effect for decades, but was abandoned, I have no idea why.

I wonder, though, Chonak, why is it forbidden for the AGO merely to set guidelines for paying church musicians, and to expect ethical behaviours from its members when trade unions are free to demand and legally enforce pay scales for their members. There are even some states in which the law requires workers in given trades to belong to a union. The FTC doesn't seem bothered by them. The prejudice here is obvious.

The public comments submitted about the FTC's complaint against the AGO are here:
https://www.ftc.gov/policy/public-comments/2017/04/initiative-699

Some of the comments are just a few lines, while some come with additional documents containing detailed discussion of the issues. Very interesting material.

T JonD:
It might be worth it to find out if the pastor violated the diocese termination rules in firing you. MOST diocese have a three - letter rule. There have to be three instances where an employee has not met standards or has not improved - the problems have to be clearly laid out. It sounds that this was NOT DONE AT ALL in your case - you might have a case for a review by the human resources dept of the diocese.

Agonzales - I am a long time member of the AF of M. I have had many talks with some of its leadership and I can tell you they would never agree to any relationship within any church; especially the Catholic Church. The underground good ole boys clergy of the Catholic Church and the mafioso boys wouldn't dream of butting heads for several "confessional" reasons. Get my drift?