gary said:
Speaking generally, the south never had much union activity as contrasted with the north.
The only place I was ever asked to show a union card was onstage at a jazz festival in Charleston, West Virginia. The union rep checked everyone, took names and later collected dues from the promoter who deducted them from our paychecks. That was in the 1970s. I suppose it is because West Virginia has a lot of mining, miners had strong unions, and unions were in favor among the voting public.
Another exception is Florida, which probably isn't the South, anyway. The union was strong in Florida in the 1960s. Then Florida became a right-to-work state. Today, what holds the union together is its strong presence in the theme parks and, to a lesser extent, the symphonies, although those diminish as fewer musicians join (because they don't have to) and the venues downize their use of live musicians.
In a right to work state, nonunion members get all the benefits of a collective bargaining agreement except the pension, so few of the younger guys care to join.
Club owners love right-to-work laws. They hire musicians at less than scale and, on the rare occasion when an owner stiffs a musician, there's no one to go to bat for the player. In the old days, the club would be placed on the defaulter's list, and the next day they wouldn't get their booze, food and other supplies delivered because teamsters wouldn't cross the lines. They called that "solidarity," and it was a powerful force.
Musicians who yearn for the glitter and glamour

of an onstage presence also like right-to-work laws. They can lowball bid their way onto a bandstand that was previously the exclusive domain of union members. Supply and demand was never more evident than in a nightclub that features live music in a right-to-work state.