UNIONIZED BROOKLYN MUSEUM WORKERS RATIFY INAUGURAL CONTRACT
Unionized workers at the Brooklyn Museum on November 7 ratified their first contract, just hours ahead of a planned strike action, which would have taken place today. Among the gains made by the organized staff, who number roughly 140, are a 23 percent raise across the three-and-a-half-year life of the contract, as well as minimum pay rates, which start at $57,630 for full-time staff and $22 an hour for those occupying front-of-house roles. Full-time staff will receive a $3,000 ratification bonus, while part-time employees will get $500. Also achieved were lower healthcare premiums, and the opportunity for part-time staff working twenty hours a week or more to obtain insurance. Additionally, the museum agreed to earmark $50,000 to aid staff with professional development.
The agreement represents a hard-won victory on the part of the union, which—like those at the Museum of Modern Art, the Bronx Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and numerous art institutions across the country—operates under the auspices of Local 2110 UAW. Since organizing in August 2021, the Brooklyn Museum union had struggled gain a fair contract, for which they had been bargaining since January 2022. In an effort to secure an equitable agreement, the union in September of that year filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Review Board (NLRB), averring that the museum’s management had employed unfair negotiation strategies. In the ensuing months, workers picketed the opening of the museum’s revitalized Asian and Islamic art galleries, the VIP dinner associated with the institution’s vaunted Thierry Mugler exhibition, and the posh Artists Ball.
“The hard work of museum staff is behind the museum’s incredible exhibitions and programs,” said union member Samantha Cortez, a senior registrar, in a statement. “Having a contract that raises our pay rates and spells out legally enforceable rights is an acknowledgment of the important contribution we make as a staff.”
