Union

It seems there are countless massage therapist like myself who are absolutly and postively sick of the employment "conditions" we're expected to tolerate. And it goes beyond M.E. It's everywhere with 90% of the jobs offered to us. We get no benefits, no insurance thats affordable, no consistent hourly wage, no sick days, no paid vacations. I never know if I'm going to be able to make my bills or not. I have to work spa parties on the wkeds or hotel out calls in the evenings which totally kills any kind of "quality of life" working so much.
Could we possibly be facing a need to unionize? As much as I hate the thought....it does offer protection from explotation.
The other alternative? We network. We stop taking these b.s. jobs. We pool together with other M.T.'s and open our own place of business.
Let it get to the point where the only way to get a massage is to go to a place that is owned and ran by us. Let it become very difficult for the others to offer our services. DON'T TAKE THE JOB. Eventually these places will hear us loud and clear. If they want us they better start offering a much better package.

im with ya! Something has to be done! Thanks for posting this, write more, get others involved!

other's are already involved............. many other's....

miss topic in Saint Louis, Missouri said: other's are already involved............. many other's....

who?

you recently replied to my other forum on oh, i have it here... so, you take a wild gander........

Well I wouldn't go so far as a Union, but I agree that we all need to pull together on this. We should all either lower our prices to compete with ME and steer clients away from them, or try to get clients at our regular rates. I'm all for shutting ME's down all over the country.
They are taking business away from qualified massage therapists. Yes, it's a good place for a new graduate to gain experience, but if other massage therapists opened a massage place that was as affordable as ME, but treated and paid their massage therapists much better, it would be a great start on shutting these ME's down. I believe that every therapist should be paid at least half of the amount charged per massage. So, if ME charges $40 (let's just round it out) the therapists should be making $20 per massage plus tips. If they charge $65 then it should be $32.50 per massage, etc.. I also think that the customers should be educated on how to tip. I worked on a lady for 80 mins. yesterday at the ME I currently HAVE to work at right now, and she only tipped me $10. I worked my butt off on her too because I felt sorry for her that she was having headaches all the time. I'll never do that again. It seems that when I feel like I'm working really hard, I don't get tipped as well as when I feel like the massage was really bad and get tipped much better. I'm so confused.
That's another thing I want to mention. Compassion goes out the window when you HAVE to work at an ME. At least it will for me. I've been practicing massage for over 12 years and have always done therapeutic massage, sometimes very deep work. It hurts after awhile.
There's my two cents. That's all the tip that ME gets from me. LOL

whiskedaway in Bloomington, Illinois said: It seems there are countless massage therapist like myself who are absolutly and postively sick of the employment "conditions" we're expected to tolerate. And it goes beyond M.E. It's everywhere with 90% of the jobs offered to us. We get no benefits, no insurance thats affordable, no consistent hourly wage, no sick days, no paid vacations. I never know if I'm going to be able to make my bills or not. I have to work spa parties on the wkeds or hotel out calls in the evenings which totally kills any kind of "quality of life" working so much.
Could we possibly be facing a need to unionize? As much as I hate the thought....it does offer protection from explotation.
The other alternative? We network. We stop taking these b.s. jobs. We pool together with other M.T.'s and open our own place of business.
Let it get to the point where the only way to get a massage is to go to a place that is owned and ran by us. Let it become very difficult for the others to offer our services. DON'T TAKE THE JOB. Eventually these places will hear us loud and clear. If they want us they better start offering a much better package.

work @ a goverment job. You'll be better off...

i couldn't agree more. by the way, my application was just sent in to the eeoc about me. there's a free web site we can start this on. www.freewebs.com please let me know how we should start this pooling of massage therapists.. i am all in for this 110 percent and know lots would come to us starting this. thank you so much for your inspiration.......

you guys are not getting the point here. The MARKET is changing. People are making less money, and want more goods and services. It’s been happening for years now, and it has happened to highly educated PHD’s who use to sell stocks in the 80 and 90’s, Doctors who spend 10-15 years of their lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars, and hardships, to find out they will no longer make the easy quarter million the old guys made, cause there are new guys, and more new guys who are willing to do the same for 120k a year. So don’t act like you’re the victims. The way I see it is..ME charges $39 of which the therapist get $15 + a Tip (average of $5, from what I’ve read here) and they are giving you guys the opportunity to make an additional $5 if you did your job right and your client wants to keep coming in to see you ( at which point when he/she requests you specifically because of your excellent talent you will be paid $17. So a client can potentially represent $22-$25 x session and the owner of ME is getting $24. So basically you guys are almost making the same amount as the owner, without the risks involved in having to run a place. How is this the “highway robbery” you guys are making it out to be??? The owner pays rent, insurance, materials, health benefits, electricity, advertising, merchant credit card fees for your tips that you are not being deducted, franchising royalty fees, cost of cleaning linen, not to mention the money hungry banks who charge 12%- 14% interest on an SBA loan for 300k+ to be able to offer you guys a stable clean environment where you are guaranteed constant work, without the hassles of dealing with managing clients, working for free, dealing with landlords, inventory, cleaning bills for linen, and running a business.

So if you guys don't want the conditions, get a job with the government...they will let you run mindlessly thru there beauacracy, and pay you for doing absolutely nothing. As for a Union??? Unions have not really been growing in the last couple of years, I don't see how we are going to make it work if we can barely make enough when we work on our own??? Lets face it even if Me or any of the other companies that are starting to do the same, exist or not, this is a symptom of the world we live in, everybody is expected to work harder to make the same, and in many cases less…but a growing population and more therapist schools popping up, are just feeding the fire…so stop complaining and make up your mind as to what you really want to do with your life.

My sister who is also a therapist made the decision 1 1/2 ago, and started radiology at the comunnity college, she is workin g full time at the hospital, and studing full time for her degree , and has a kid....she' looking to make 60k a year....if she's lucky..why?? cause everytime there is a good thing going on, everybody and their mother jumps in and wants to do it. Just look at what happend with the real estate boom. Car salesman and their mecahnics were becoming realtors, and mortgage brokers...what happend now...they use to make tons of money, now you can get a mortage broker to work for you for about 2k idf you know what to say..cause there are tons of them...they are'nt going to band together and think they are going to change the world...some leave, some modify there expectations, but in the end it is the market that is paying for their services that are dictating the rules..Not the banks or the employers...come on guys...get the bigger picture here, stop wasting your time and concentrate on moving on to something else..

Gee Gonzalo...you sound so angrey. You seem so confident that you get the big picture when honestly I don't think you do! If there was only enough room in this little box or the time it would take to give you a good rebuttal. I would. But then I remind myself that I would only be wasting my time. You're the type of person who would jump in the lake because everybody else is jumping in the lake. What I hear you saying is that we should just roll over. Right? Or throw in the towel and run to something else like your sister. Some of us love what we have been trained to do and don't want to change careers. Some of us just simply want to make a decent living at what we love doing. And that doesn't mean 120k or any where near that amount to be happy and "feel" sucessful.
The market is compromised of what? PEOPLE! You, me and the rest of america. Yes, we are controlled to a point with corporate america but we do have the freedom in many instances to change things by doing or not doing. Go back to your books and re read the basics of economics. Supply and demand. That is the greatest opposition we therapists have on our side. And yes, I feel we can put a dent in the future by making some changes in the present. Union or no union. The point is if we do nothing than all this forum is is a place to go and complain and nothing more. I am merely trying to plant a seed and hope it grows with the support of others who feel the same way and also want to make changes for the better.
Get a government job? You really think thats the answer? Gonzalo.....go jump in the lake.

miss topic in Saint Louis, Missouri said: i couldn't agree more. by the way, my application was just sent in to the eeoc about me. there's a free web site we can start this on. www.freewebs.com please let me know how we should start this pooling of massage therapists.. i am all in for this 110 percent and know lots would come to us starting this. thank you so much for your inspiration.......

Thank you! It's nice to know someone has a positive attitude. Starting a web site would be a hugh commitment of time and not that effective since every state has different rules and regulations. Our best bet is to place an ad in our local papers in the "business opportunity" section looking for other therapist to start own business. With 4 (or more! )people involved, that will really help keep over head cost down. I would love to share my ideas but there is not enough room here to even begin. However, this november I do plan on going to Springfield and talking to a Lobbiest. I would suggest everyone start there as their first step. Take a day and go to your capitol and find a lobbiest as well. You never know. There might be that new fresh graduate who is green behind the ears but full of vim and vigor and wanting to set the world on fire with that possible cause that could put their name on the map. If nothing else you'll leave with valuable insight and alot more informed about the issues at hand. This is something that is not going to happen over night. This will take time and patience. Are you still with me?!!!

whiskedaway ..you can go ahead and stick your head in the ground, but the reality is how many americans have lost their jobs to people who will do it for less????millions. And as for the basics of economics, there seems to be one you skiped over which says that peoples needs and desires are limitless, and they will get what they want for the lowest cost.....sad to say there are tons of people out there who just give their work away, and it happend to other highley structures and knowledgable poople in industries that shot them selves in the foot by taking your mentality to the problem. guess what happend? Ilegal imigration, and company outsourcing to other countries. Bottom line everybody preferes to pay less for what they want, and your hallmark moment about rallying togehter is only wishfull thinking..owe another chapter you seem to have missed in economics, is about how different sectors of the economy either become more efficient at what they can do or they are taken over by other competitors. In this case the highley trained therapist will have more people doing what they thought only a few could do, and when you have to make your living you end up either adapting to change or eaten up by the system...

wow, i don't have to read all the comments here to realize some scutiny is going on.... is it people that work at massage envy///// cause i heard in the break room about this site and yes, sad to say it was one of the clicky chicks... why don't you but heads grow out of your behind, call out the other end and see what the freedom of america rings.......
i am happy not to work there anymore. jesus, the jealosy of those clicky people. they have to make up lies to get rid of people, secondly yeah, maybe the eeoc can not do anything 'these day's' but law suits are never outdated....... put that up there where the sun doesn't shine and get off people's backs that have us or me that will stand behind the rightous 100 percent.....
you know where you belong, so get going and get out of here.

you can start your own web site for free at www.freewebs.com good luck everyone. i already have one there. i have 14 member's now and that's 10 percent of all the people i sent out invitation's too. 10 percent is better than nothing. my web site is educational with video's that you can find on u-tube... i hand out cards to people almost daily. you can get free prints at www.vista.com hint though, the more you buy, the higher the cost of shipping. i have some regular people that will stand by me, but i still hate the fact they don't know what pandering is... i will not put up picture's of myself on my own professional web site of me giving a massage. how crude is that1