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] ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).