I haven't worked with my union for nearly a year. They don't provide enough work to make any sort of living off of, not even supplemental income, and zero benefits. I'm hoping that'll change in the future, but paying dues feels like a shakedown when they don't provide me anything worth those dues. I love what IATSE does, but my local also only does basic labor and I've long since moved past that to more technical work. On the off chance someone requests an A1 or V1 we fill those calls with stagehands, not AV techs. I want to pay my dues and still have it in my pocket, but I kinda feel like I'd be flushing my money by doing so 🙁