Local 2110 Members at Whitney, Brooklyn, Seaport, & American Folk Art Museums Vote to Authorize Strikes

Unionized staff at three major New York City museums have voted to authorize strike action if they do not receive fair offers on their union contract. Workers at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the South Street Seaport Museum, and the American Folk Art Museum have each voted overwhelmingly to authorize their elected bargaining committees to set a strike deadline if necessary.

No strike deadlines have been set yet, but several of the museums have major exhibition openings scheduled for early October. Workers at all three institutions say they are ready to strike if no fair agreement is reached.

”It’s not that we want to strike,” says Derrick Charles, a Membership Associate at the Whitney and Union Chairperson. “We’d rather be working and doing our jobs but our wages are untenable for making ends meet in New York City.” Employed in the Visitor and Membership Services Department, Charles works in the lobby of the Whitney, selling tickets and memberships to visitors and answering questions. He’s been in the position since 2018 and earns $24 per hour.  

Elizabeth St. George, an Assistant Curator at the Brooklyn Museum, is concerned about health care and job security. “I’ve never expected to get rich as a curator,” she says, “but I want to be able to rely on having a job with affordable health care and a reasonable salary so I can concentrate on doing the work I love.” 

Esme Levitch, a Public Programs Associate who has worked at the Museum since 2022, says: “We’ve been bargaining with the Museum for over a year now and we feel we have no choice but to move forward with a strike action if we can’t come to terms.” Levitch, who averages 30-40 hours per week, is classified as part-time by the Museum and receives no health benefits or paid vacation. Depending upon her assignment, she is paid either $22 or $23 per hour. 

Richard Ho, Director of Information Technologies for AFAM who has worked at the Museum for 25 years, says he loves AFAM but stands with his colleagues: “AFAM staff voted unanimously to unionize to address pressing concerns about workplace rights and wages that lag below inflation. Staff should be able to afford to live in the city they work in.”

The Union says that all four museums need to raise minimum pay rates for staff and points to average wages for its members that are below the $71,000 per year that the City recently cited as needed for a single adult to afford to live in New York in its NYC True Cost of Living Measure Annual Report.

Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers has organized thousands of museum and cultural workers in the last eight years. Besides the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Folk Art Museum, workers at the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the Jewish Museum, the Hispanic Society, the Noguchi Museum and the New York Historical are all represented by Local 2110.

Follow the Whitney Union, the Brooklyn Museum Union, the South Street Seaport Museum Union, and the AFAM Union on Instagram for the latest updates.

Update:

As of September 28, the American Folk Art Museum Union and the Brooklyn Museum Union reached tentative agreements. The Whitney Union ratified a memorandum of agreement to avert its strike deadline of October 5.

In the news:

• Art Forum: Unionized Staff at Three Major NYC Museums Vote to Strike (Sept. 16)
• Hyperallergic: Staff at Whitney Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and American Folk Art Museum Authorize Strike (Sept. 15)
• Hyperallergic: Whitney Museum Union Sets Strike Date Ahead of Major Roy Lichtenstein Show (Sept. 28)
• The Art Newspaper: Workers at the Whitney Museum vote to strike (Sept. 29)
• Hyperallergic: Unions Reach Tentative Agreements at Brooklyn Museum and American Folk Art Museum (Sept. 29)