<p>How do I fix that error once and for all?  I just want to be able to do unions in MySQL.  </p>

<p>(I'm looking for a shortcut, like an option to make MySQL ignore that issue or take it's best guess, not looking to change collations on 100s of tables ... at least not today)</p>

Not sure about mySQL but in MSSQL you can change the collation in the query so for example if you have 2 tables with different collation and you want to join them or as in you situation crate UNION you can do
```
```
select column1 from tableWithProperCollation
union all
select column1 COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS from tableWithDifferentCollation
```
```
Of course SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS is just an example of collation you want to "convert" to