Comments on: Museunions http://newcurator.com/2009/08/museunions/ Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:40:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Daniel Cull http://newcurator.com/2009/08/museunions/comment-page-1/#comment-1328 Daniel Cull Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:04:49 +0000 http://newcurator.com/?p=1304#comment-1328 Pete, Another excellent post, and thanks for referencing your 'standing orders' post, I missed that the first time. Good stuff. Personally I like the word Unions, but I'm a commie! What I don't like is the bureaucratic nightmare they've become. To my mind, in the world of Unions the only real standout union doing something different is the revitalized and steadily growing Industrial workers of the World www.iww.org/ ... which is a leaderless union that organises internationally and amongst workers that would normally be ignored... Starbucks Baristas are the most successful so far. www.starbucksunion.org/ So I think some aspects of union activity are worth thinking about. I 100% agree that both traditional unions and traditional membership association are not the answer. I also think you made a very important point when you suggested setting a goal and then directly targeting that goal. The point I believe is that it IS necessary to organise somehow, and it IS necessary to do that together. Therefore posts like yours become important parts of that discussion. We've nothing to loose but our beards... or whatever it was Marx said. Cheers, Dan Pete,

Another excellent post, and thanks for referencing your ’standing orders’ post, I missed that the first time. Good stuff.

Personally I like the word Unions, but I’m a commie! What I don’t like is the bureaucratic nightmare they’ve become. To my mind, in the world of Unions the only real standout union doing something different is the revitalized and steadily growing Industrial workers of the World http://www.iww.org/ … which is a leaderless union that organises internationally and amongst workers that would normally be ignored… Starbucks Baristas are the most successful so far. http://www.starbucksunion.org/ So I think some aspects of union activity are worth thinking about.

I 100% agree that both traditional unions and traditional membership association are not the answer. I also think you made a very important point when you suggested setting a goal and then directly targeting that goal. The point I believe is that it IS necessary to organise somehow, and it IS necessary to do that together.

Therefore posts like yours become important parts of that discussion. We’ve nothing to loose but our beards… or whatever it was Marx said.

Cheers, Dan

]]> By: Kirsten http://newcurator.com/2009/08/museunions/comment-page-1/#comment-1325 Kirsten Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:44:58 +0000 http://newcurator.com/?p=1304#comment-1325 We definitely have to do a few blog posts weighing the pros and cons of unions/different types of unions, but there’s a lot of research that has to be done before we get to that point. I agree that a museum workers “union” in the typical sense would be a little toothless, but mostly because I’m having trouble seeing how it would grow teeth. Who would finance it? What ground would it stand on? What benefits would it offer its members? There are more questions than answers by a long shot. Even an open source union presents many of the same problems. In short, I agree with much of what you’re saying even though I don’t think unions are outmoded institutions. Regardless of what such an organization/loose conglomeration of people is called the next step is to decide what our “few simply defined” goals are. Then we can discuss how to get there. We definitely have to do a few blog posts weighing the pros and cons of unions/different types of unions, but there’s a lot of research that has to be done before we get to that point. I agree that a museum workers “union” in the typical sense would be a little toothless, but mostly because I’m having trouble seeing how it would grow teeth. Who would finance it? What ground would it stand on? What benefits would it offer its members? There are more questions than answers by a long shot. Even an open source union presents many of the same problems.

In short, I agree with much of what you’re saying even though I don’t think unions are outmoded institutions.

Regardless of what such an organization/loose conglomeration of people is called the next step is to decide what our “few simply defined” goals are. Then we can discuss how to get there.

]]>