After 16 Months, Whitney Staff Attain First Union Contract
Staff on the Whitney Museum of American Artwork voted to ratify their first union contract in the present day, March 6. Workers and museum management reached the labor settlement after 16 months of bargaining. The three-and-a-half-year contract offers substantial raises, particularly for the museum’s lowest-paid staff.
In Could 2021, 185 Whitney workers members petitioned to affix UAW Native 2110, which represents staff at different New York establishments together with the Museum of Fashionable Artwork and the Brooklyn Museum. The choice fell amidst a wave of unionization efforts sweeping cultural facilities throughout the nation. The Whitney had laid off 20% of its workers because the onset of the pandemic. Half of the museum’s staff made lower than $20 an hour and a big physique of momentary staff didn’t obtain advantages.
Since then, union members have staged high-profile protests, together with an motion throughout the VIP opening of the 2022 Whitney Biennial and a picket outdoors of an necessary fundraising gala. Nevertheless, staff’ wages remained unchanged as contract negotiations inched alongside.
Underneath the brand new contract, workers members who made the minimal hourly fee of $17 will now be paid $22, retroactive to January 1, 2023. By the tip of June 2025, these staff will earn $24 per hour.
Minimal wages may also improve throughout the museum’s 5 pay sectors. On common, staff will obtain an extra 15% in compensation, retroactive to January 1 for all staff. The union members may also obtain $1,000 signing bonuses and 9.5% raises over the course of their new contract.
A museum spokesperson instructed Hyperallergic the establishment was happy to achieve an settlement with the union. “After negotiating in good religion for a lot of months, we have now finalized a contract that serves the most effective pursuits of our workers,” they mentioned. “We sit up for a longstanding and productive working relationship with 2110.”
“We’re excited to have a contract that acknowledges our contribution to the Museum,” amenities supervisor Sandy LaPorte mentioned in a Native 2110 assertion emailed to Hyperallergic. “We work out of the limelight and have typically felt underappreciated and unheard. With this contract, our jobs are protected and we have now a voice on the Museum.”
Different stipulations enhance the museum’s security protocols and require the Whitney to supply further hours to everlasting staff earlier than hiring new momentary ones.
The settlement additionally offers for momentary staff, who will now obtain paid holidays and the newly negotiated minimal wages, and might be given choice for filling everlasting roles.
“As a curatorial mission worker who has labored on the Whitney for 5 years, I’m heartened that this contract ensures that so many workers, together with these employed on momentary or grant-funded initiatives, might be protected by our contract with a path to longer-term employment,” mentioned curatorial analysis Ramsay Kolber. “Unionization in our discipline is a strategy to make long-term careers in museums extra sustainable and equitable.”