Re: Big Temporary Networks

[Jo Rhett <jrhett () netconsonance com>]

NOTE: None of the following content can be typed into your router. It holds information only slightly relevant to 
networking.

On Sep 18, 2012, at 1:47 PM, William Herrin wrote:
> > That has been true everywhere that Worldcon has been for a
> > number of years, excluding Japan.  Hotel union contracts
> > generally forbid activity being done by any non-union people,
> > even if they are the guests.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law
>
> ''A "right-to-work" law is a statute that prohibits union security
> agreements, or agreements between labor unions and employers that
> govern the extent to which an established union can require employees'
> membership [...] as a condition of employment. Right-to-work laws
> exist in twenty-three U.S. states,''


Well, Bill, this starts the legal dance equivalent of "patches accepted", that being "you are welcome to sue against 
this with your own money".

Not being aware of which states have this law, it's entirely possible that the intersection between states that have 
this law and states which have enough scifi fans willing to get together to host a worldcon is negligible. I can only 
recall ~9 states which have hosted a worldcon in the last 30 years. Checking the easily found references pages seems to 
confirm this although I didn't bother checking extensively.

I'm closely associated and personal friends with people who have done the hotel negotiations for four of the recent 
worldcons, and on a first name basis with most of the others, and this union requirement has been a major problem with 
most if not all of them. Just getting a waiver to allow people to serve drinks in their own hotel rooms has been hard 
enough to break many bids. It is currently impossible in San Francisco due to hotel contracts, and part of why Worldcon 
will never return to San Francisco unless very unlikely changes happen.

-- 
Jo Rhett
Net Consonance : net philanthropy to improve open source and internet projects.