At 04:43 PM 7/28/98 -0500, you wrote:

>The institution I work for has been presented with a petition from
>employees to unionize -- an official vote is just weeks away.  Based on
>the research I have done (unions, National Labor Relations Act, SEIU
>local 46, etc.) -- a union would not be in the best interest of a
>non-profit arts organization nor its employees.

What would the purpose of a museum union be?  I don't know that much about
unions other than Actor's Equity, the stage actor and stage manager union
and IATSE, the techie union for stage, TV and screen.
Obviously, these unions are a bit different than a "traditional" union like
the coal miners union or auto workers union.

But from what I can gather, the original purpose of unions is to ensure
that workers get a reasonable wage, safe working conditions, set work hours
and compensation for overtime work - ergo not get exploited by big business.

The major gripe from musem workers is not that they work long hours in
unsafe conditions for little pay, but that they work long hours in a neat
museum setting, love their jobs but get crappy pay.  We also have a choice
to work in another field as opposed to an auto worker who is trained to do
mechanical work and is pretty much stuck in that field without massive
retraining or education, often unaffordable.

So if our main reason to unionize is to get more pay, I don't think a union
is the answer.  Even with a union, good pay is not often a guarentee.
Equity has scales for the size of a theater, annual revenue, etc. which
regulates what union theaters can pay actors.  Actors still wait tables to
make ends meet.   Also if a museum cannot afford to pay a union salary and
has no choice but to hire union workers, it will fold.  That ultimately
shoots us in the foot as well.

I stand by my original argument about how to fix low salaries.  There are
plenty of ways to make money and to cover expenses.  A union will not solve
the cash flow problem and it will probably be more expensive for employees
to have because they now have to pay union dues on top of health care,
retirement, etc.  Thinking as a business and working as a business is the
only way to make museums cost-effective and get salaries up.  The days of
Carniegies, Smithsons and Rockerfellers supporting institutions is almost
over.  We need to change our thinking from getting old blue-hairs to give
us money to find ways of making it for ourselves.

Deb Fuller

--------------------------------------------
Staples &  Charles Ltd.
225 N Fairfax St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
USA
703-683-0900 - voice
703-683-2820 - fax
[log in to unmask]