The Museum Union Wave Dossier
At the literal and figurative center of the Summer 2020, Living & Working issue was The Museum Union Wave, an extensive research project by Maxwell Paparella that tracks the wave of museum unionizations in the US, which began in 2018 and collided with COVID-19.
This dossier brings together the elements of Paparella’s research. The essay, The Museum Union Wave, offers a narrative overview of recent museum unionization efforts and demands for accountability. The accompanying timeline, with expanded content in this online iteration, meticulously documents unionization efforts—and in some cases, institutional backlash—of 18 museums in the US. The companion glossary offers definitions for common union terms, labor organizing jargon, and unpacks the acronyms that typically stand in for union names.
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The Museum Union Wave
No one could remember a time when wages for work in the arts met the cost of living in an American city.
The Museum Union Wave Timeline
Data on this timeline came from public records, secondary-source media accounts, and email or phone exchanges with union members and leaders, as well as from union and museum social media accounts and press releases.
Unions & Terms
These glossaries are far from exhaustive, but they may be useful for understanding the jargon of labor organizing.