James, Since when has the focus of unions ever shifted away from fighting for workers' rights? The ideals - and reality - of what my great-grandparents fought for during the 1920s and 1930s has not been lost: fair pay, fair hours, fair treatment for and of all workers. That few workers unionize today is indicative of workers' fears that they will lose their jobs if the union fails, and they are left in the spotlight as the "trouble-making union organizer." It's also evident that Big Business learned that if they "give" some control to the employees (i.e., "employee-owned" corporations), the polarization of 'management versus workers' is minimized . . . thereby limiting the desire for unionization by linking workers' profits to business profits. If the workers go on strike and productivity drops, so too do stockholders' (including the worker-owners') profits. It is capitalism's concession to a communist ideal which no cannot survive very well in a free market economy. Just my point of view . . . Sincerely, Jay Heuman Visitor & Volunteer Services Coordinator Joslyn Art Museum 2200 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE, 68102 342-3300 (telephone) 342-2376 (fax) "You can’t lock up art in a vault and keep it frozen for posterity. Then the artist is betrayed, history is betrayed." (Walter Persegati) > -----Original Message----- > From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] > On Behalf Of James Schulte > Sent: Friday, September 13, 2002 7:29 pm > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: unions in Museums > > > Do we really need unions. They were good at one time, > however now they have really lost their actually focus ========================================================= 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).