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I'd rather be associated with 722 or Nick Schmidt or a lot of the other privateers than a kid on an 85 but, then again, I'm not cutting checks for endorsements so it doesn't matter what I think.
"I feel an athlete's union is something that is needed in every sport. We are the live entertainment and at times do not get treated right. I'm not saying it happens all the time but in sports like the NFL athletes have the right to have their opinions heard and to stand their ground. In our sport you want to stand your ground go ahead. You will be sitting on the couch while someone else comes and fills your spot. I don't think our sport will ever have a union because of that very reason. There aren't enough riders who will come together to start one."
Comparing it to football is a tough thing. In football, you work for the NFL or a team to play at the professional level. Nobody can simply walk in, sign up and play ball. By selecting who's "working" for the league (or organizer), they could band together. The logistics of the various levels at play are a detriment to being able to organize effectively since there's so many varied wants and needs.
All of that being said, it's ultimately not up to the fans to demand better for the riders. It's the responsibility of the riders to do that for themselves. Nobody petitions my boss to say I should have better working conditions or pay. If the riders can't organize, how do we organize for them? The answer is that we can't do that.
Mike did raise a good point in saying that there are always people willing to fill that "pro" spot, deserving or not. And as long as there's a supply of riders willing to put on a show, there's no real incentive for the promoters to change anything.
I’ve been in 2 different labor unions in different times in my life and ended up not getting into a third that I knew all about from 2 friends that worked in it.
In my opinion, the first was a scam as my compensation was the lowest legally allowed and the benefits were nearly non-existent, yet a portion of my minimum wage earnings went to pay these union dues.
The second one seemed like it might have offered some benefit to the workers but I quickly found out that wasn’t the case after they pretty much forced us to go on strike over failed contract negotiations with the employer that the union said was all the employers fault. I later found out the union was lying to us about what was being offered and we could have actually had a decent deal, all of course while still giving a notable portion of my check to the union. Fun fact, a nearby competitor of the employer was paying its non-union employees better than us.
The third union I didn’t get into but wish I did. I don’t know how they did it but the employees were making incredible wages, primarily from overtime for work that could easily be done by some of the laziest people you know. Once you were in, you were set for life. After 2-3 years, friends were easily making $100k+ with amazing benefits by doing a job not much more demanding than working a drive-through at McDonalds.
And I do think at a point in time unions were a good thing but greed and entitlement ruined a lot of them. It seems like a riders union might not be a bad thing if there actually is a lot of money flowing into Feld from SX.
Nothing wrong with emulating what has made other sports successful. Especially when those requests arent at the expense of the integrity of the sport.
2 additional bullet points would come out of those changes you suggest. And they are changes I'd love to see happen in MotoGP & especially F1 for the long term betterment of those sports:
- equal revenue sharing amongst the teams that hold slots on the grid
- budget caps (leveling the financial playing field will allow for freeing up the rules regulations entirely, which is a win for everyone)
fact is feld dont need any of these riders as a individual and that includes dungey or the last guy who qualified.
remove dungey and they promote the next guy, the last guy to qualify walks and there is 10 more who want his place and are willing to do it for free. until that changes it will never be any dif.
point i was trying to make is that if you go through life thinking you are entitled to anything you are in for a long miserable life.
Pit Row
This is about as likely to happen as a riders union.
And again, when you talk about organizing how do you decide who contributes what? The guy doing his local race has to pay what the guy doing the whole series does? Who's really being negotiated for? The riders aren't employees, they're contractors of the series. Every single one of them works for themselves while contracted to represent certain companies in the form of sponsorship. For organization as a union to work, they would have to become FELD employees.
I don't get how me poking fun at some of the views that are thrown around Vital equates to me not caring about the sports/riders well being.
Post a reply to: Riders Union