On Tuesday night (25 April), as trustees, members and different supporters of the Brooklyn Museum arrived for the establishment’s annual Brooklyn Artists Ball fundraiser, they had been greeted by a picket line shaped by unionised museum staff. About 80 members of the union chanted, brandished indicators and handed out leaflets and buttons to gala visitors in an try to convey extra consideration to their bargaining efforts. The union has been in negotiations with the museum for the final 14 months and has but to finalise the main points of its first contract. The gala proved to be the museum’s most profitable to this point, elevating $2.8m.
“There is not any actual motion on any of the problems that we’re most involved about, so we’re simply attempting to place ourselves out right here to boost consciousness that this is a matter within the area,” Emily McClain, an object conservation fellow and union member, mentioned. “We’re very overworked, very underpaid. We’re those that assist the museum run.”
Whereas many visitors shortly handed the picket line, some spoke briefly with union members, taking buttons and leaflets into the celebration. The annual gala, which raises cash for the museum, was honoring the photographer Carrie Mae Weems this yr. The host committee included Spike Lee, Kehinde Wiley, Cindy Sherman and Judy Chicago (whose well-known Dinner Social gathering set up of 1974-79 is a everlasting fixture of the museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Heart for Feminist Artwork).
Members of the Brooklyn Museum union rally exterior its annual fundraising gala on 25 April Anni Irish
“We’re annoyed about the place we’re at in negotiations, however moments like this the place we see all of the assist and listen to the assist and have so many individuals out right here actually helps us on the bargaining committee hold that motivation and hold our spirits as much as battle for this honest contract,” Owen O’Brien, a member of the union’s bargaining committee and a supervisor inside the growth division, mentioned. “We’re Undoubtedly getting some good engagement from VIPs who’ve gone in.”
The Brooklyn Museum union shaped in August 2021 and contains round 130 full-time and part-time staff throughout numerous departments together with conservation, training and customer providers. It’s a part of the United Auto Staff (UAW) Native 2110, which additionally represents staff at different museums in New York and throughout the Northeast together with the Museum of Trendy Artwork, the Jewish Museum, the Hispanic Society Museum & Library (the place staff have been on strike for practically a month), Mass Moca and the Museum of Superb Arts, Boston.
Contract negotiations with Brooklyn Museum management started in January 2022 and have progressed at a “glacial slowness”, in line with Maida Rosenstein, director of organising at UAW Native 2110. Topics the union and museum officers stay at odds on embody key points akin to wages. “The museum’s place in negotiations is simply to lowball individuals on the wages. The Brooklyn museum’s wages have traditionally been low even inside the museum area,” Rosenstein says.
Members of the Brooklyn Museum union rally exterior its annual fundraising gala on 25 April Anni Irish
In keeping with a press release from the union, museum leaders have provided a 3 and a half yr contract with across-the-board share wage will increase amounting to 9% by the tip of the contract. That is lower than what staff on the Whitney Museum of American Artwork and the Bronx Museum of the Arts just lately gained of their contract negotiations. The union is looking for a 16.25% improve across-the-board over the identical yr interval.
Within the fall of final yr, UAW Native 2110 filed an unfair labour practices cost in opposition to the Brooklyn Museum with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, which alleged that that museum management had engaged in unfair negotiation techniques. The union and museum administration have one other bargaining session scheduled for this week.
“We respect the rights of our bargained workers to exhibit safely and stay dedicated to reaching an settlement as quickly as potential,” a museum spokesperson instructed The Artwork Newspaper.
