NYT: Guides Say Museum Is Blocking Union Drive

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/nyregion/05tenement.html?ref=nyregion

By SEWELL CHAN
Published: March 5, 2008

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, which features stories of downtrodden immigrants exploited by employers and landlords, is now the subject of a unionization drive by nearly 30 part-time tour guides who say the organization has been blocking their efforts to organize for higher wages, better benefits and more regular work schedules.

The guides, who are paid by the hour to work as museum educators, handed out fliers on Tuesday evening at a fund-raising gala for the museum at Chelsea Piers. More than 450 supporters of the museum paid at least $850 a ticket to attend. The museum says that it does not oppose unionization, but that any union should include all employees, not just part-time guides.

Lethia Nall, one of the workers organizing the unionization drive, said the workers hoped a union would help them to achieve higher wages, job security, health benefits, annual bonuses, more flexible schedules and a more transparent disciplinary process.

“The workers really love the museum, and we think the union will make it a stronger and more valuable place,” she said.

Ms. Nall has worked part-time at the museum for five and a half years. She is paid $24 an hour for about 10 hours a week; part of her job involves wearing a costume and playing Victoria Confino, a Sephardic Jew who was living at 97 Orchard Street in 1916 after emigrating from Greece, then part of the Ottoman Empire.

The museum was established in 1988 by Ruth J. Abram, who continues as president. The centerpiece of the museum’s holdings is the restored tenement at 97 Orchard Street, on what was once one of most crowded blocks in the world. Public tours are given every day but Monday, when only group tours are offered.

FULL story at link.