Ep. 69 - The Union

August 28, 2018

Writers: Blake Hunter
Director: Linda Day
Original Air Date: October 21, 1981

** IMPORTANT EPISODE **

I realize my last blog entry was very long, so today I'm just going to discuss the history of trade unionism in America.

"It's as American as apple pie," according to Bailey.

No, I won't put you through that, but this is one of those WKRP episodes that really demonstrate how the world has changed in 35 years. I don't think a sit-com would take on a topic like unionization today, and even if it did, it would take a very different approach.

This is also the pivotal episode the season. Many of the actions that are coming up, including the finale, flow directly from the "Deal" Andy makes with Mama Carlson. I have a couple of ideas about that deal.

Mama Carlson never leaves her patio throughout the entire episode, even when Andy is having drinks. We are introduced to her through her thoughtful soliloquy on the spirituality of nature: "You know, people today live without spiritual awareness." She is tell Arthur about how important the garden is to her; how she nurtures each plant and they in turn nurture her spirit. She believes this make her spiritually in tune.

But look who she is telling this to - the one person she was suppose to nurture throughout his life: her own son. Yet he lives his life starved for that nurturing and attention from her.  Arthur does not cultivate his spiritual growth through plants - he receives it from the people around him. He care about his employees and wants to make them happy when he can. He pays attention to each of them and thinks of them all has his family, with him sitting as benevolent father on the top.

So when the station cracks the finally, after three years of rock n' roll, cracks the Top Ten rated stations in the Cincinnati market, he wants to give the staff a little raise. In part because they've each contributed to the success of the station, but mostly, as he tells Jennifer "it makes me feel good too!"

Mama Carlson does not care about her employees and Carol Bruce runs ice water through her veins at the news that the employees are thinking about unionizing. She quickly thinks about how she and the other station owners can stop this before it starts. "We'll crush them like a bug!" she smiles as she takes in a deep, nourishing breath from a flower.

The employees are not nourished. There are a couple of things they are wanting from a union. Obviously, the first thing is more money. But the next thing is a sense of leadership. What Venus and Bailey are most excited by is the notion that they were personally chosen by the Brotherhood of Midwestern Radio Workers to lead up the union drive, before learning that everyone else had also been approached. Even Les, who is adamantly opposed to unionization becomes part of the drive because "I just like being in charge for once." Johnny become the leader mostly because he sees the payday that could be in store for himself as an "old timer" in the business.

All these opposing forces are about to clash in the end, and these moments are as good of a retelling of the roots of Reagan era capitalism as you'll ever find in a sitcom. Once again, we can be amazed looking back at this show a third of a century after it originally aired, knowing how many of the economic and business decision made in the early '80's have turned out. We no longer have a battle between the suits and the dungarees - the battle has become more sophisticated.

On one side there are the workers, who we might call have once called the dungarees, wanting what they consider their fair share of the profits of their labours. But it's the suits that are split. One group is who we would traditionally think of as the suits - the owners who want to keep as much money for themselves as possible, and consider their workers as expendable and expensive. Of course, this is represented by Mama Carlson. But then there is also the benevolent owner, represented by Arthur. He's like the old Mr. Fezziwig character in Dickens' "A Christmas Carol;" someone who worked as hard as his employees but also enjoyed having fun with them and respected them as human beings, and in so doing earned his employees' respect, and even affections. As financially successful as Mama Carlson may be, she has earned neither from her employees. That's why they are prepared to unionize.

But Arthur doesn't see it this way. He has put his spirit into cultivating his relationships with his employees and tells Andy "This whole union thing is a personal attack on me!" Arthur agrees with his mother that he doesn't want a union at WKRP, but it is for very different reasons than her. She, rightly, sees a union as a limiter to profits and control. Arthur sees as something that is breaking up the family; something that will limit how much love and respect he can choose to show his employees.

What we can see clearly now, more than 30 years later is that Mama Carlson's side won. Cold-eyed economics became the measurement of success, not the human relationships that can be built between employer and employee. If you think that's cynical, wait until you read my next ideas!

The crux of the episode rests in the final moments, when it is revealed that it was Andy's plan all along to manipulate the people involved to keep the union out of the station in order to get more money into the station from Mama Carlson. I'm going to propose two left-field ideas: 1) Andy contacted the Radio Workers Union to have them notify his people about unionizing the station, and 2) Andy would win whichever way the station went. Here's my thinking:

Andy has told us many times he's worked in radio all his life, so at some point he must have come across this Union and would know some of it's members. If that's so, then it wouldn't be too much of a leap to think he could reach out to them. That's a more likely scenario that this union just discovering WKRP because they've now hit the Top Ten. After three years, Andy has determined he will never get the money he needs to take the station where he wants it to go directly from Mama Carlson. A union creates the pressure point he's been looking for. As he tells Mr. Carlson "I'm on the side of the station."

If he makes a deal with Mama, and keeps the union out, he finally shows how invaluable he is and gets the money he needs. BUT if he DOESN'T get keep the union out, the union will force Mama's hand and demand the money that the station needs, especially regarding salaries. So he still gets the money. It's a low risk deal for Andy for Andy to make.

Look at his attitude when he comes back to that station the next day after meeting with Mama. Andy is practically giddy! His first idea is to clean up the lobby, something he probably wouldn't have gotten if the union had won out. Andy is happy to let Mr. Carlson think that it was his speech to the employees that won them over - that's the way they themselves would have recounted it too. Andy doesn't need the credit... he's already won!

Roy

Other Notes: The union loses by a vote of 5-4. Count the number of people at the meeting... there are eight. Jennifer provides most of the humour in the episode, from dealing with a crazed admirer sending her hundreds of roses to discussing her own union: "The International Sisterhood of Blonde Receptionists."