Hello--
        The reason people in the art and museum worlds do not form unions
is not because they lack strength or initiative. In most places, utter the
word "union" and you are gone. In these days the most outrageous conduct
by employers can slip by because well, at least you've got a job. Now, was
it Walmart or K-Mart that just got popped for making its employees work
overtime with NO PAY? This was in Oregon, now one of the poorest states in
this country, filled with people desperate for a job. Years ago this
situation would have led directly to at least an attempt to organize. Not
now. Not in a state where people fight for minimum-wage jobs and are ready
to put up with all kinds of abuse for the privilege of working for $5 an
hour.
        The situation in "our" world seems a little bit better only
because until recently people who went in to museum work had more
support: parents or a spouse. Most of the female art historians I knew
in the past were married to professionals and used their incomes to
pay for the private school for the kids and their wardrobes.  That is less
and less true today.
        In short, there are plenty of brave people in our world.  Maybe we
are just more hopeful and optimistic about our employment future than we
should be.

        Adrienne DeAngelis, Editoress
        Resources in Art History for Graduate Students
        (http://www.efn.org/~acd/resources.html)
        [log in to unmask]

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