{"id":149306,"date":"2025-11-23T07:23:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T07:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/149306\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T07:23:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T07:23:22","slug":"met-museum-workers-move-to-unionize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/149306\/","title":{"rendered":"Met Museum Workers Move to Unionize"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOn Monday morning, a labor union petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to approve a bargaining unit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a> that would cover roughly 1,000 salaried and hourly workers across the museum\u2019s sectors. If the vote passes, the Met would rank among the largest unionized museums in the nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA press release from Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW) on November 17 cited\u00a0\u201clong term pay inequities, lack of job protection and ever-increasing workloads\u201d as motivations for unionizing. Local 2110 represents workers across New York\u2019s museums and cultural institutions, including\u00a0the Museum of Modern Art<\/a>,\u00a0the Brooklyn Museum<\/a>,\u00a0the Guggenheim<\/a>,\u00a0the Whitney Museum<\/a>,\u00a0the New Museum, and\u00a0the Shed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Metropolitan<\/p>\n

\n\tAt present, two smaller unions at the museum represent\u00a0security guards<\/a>\u00a0and projectionists.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOver many decades, we have worked to develop a culture of inclusivity, collaboration and creativity, and take every opportunity to uplift our employees,\u201d\u00a0Ann Bailis, a Met Museum spokeswoman, told The New York Times. \u201cWe respect the right to seek union representation and are proud of our longstanding relationships with DC37 and Local 306 IATSE, which represent a large segment of our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw cultural professionals nationwide lose their livelihoods, momentum for unions and unionization efforts at art museums, cultural institutions, and art schools nationwide has only grown. Each drive has been united by calls for job security, better wages, and clearer paths for advancement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA major union drive had reportedly been brewing at the Met for several years, and Local 2110 UAW said this week that employees officially reached out in 2022.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Met has 2,015 employees, and according to a museum spokesperson, more than 600 of them earn over $100,000 annually. The spokesperson added that salaries have increased by an average of 4 percent each year over the past five years.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHowever, the Museum often makes decisions without considering or consulting staff, such as changes to our Work from Home policy and erosion of our health and other benefits,\u201d said Alison Clark, a collections manager at the Met for nearly 20 years, in a statement, as first quoted by Hyperallergic<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRight now, we\u2019re contending with several large-scale capital projects that displace people and create a lot of additional work for the staff. Unionizing is the only way for us to have a strong collective voice to address concerns with the Museum,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the same day as the union announcement, the Met revealed the Costume Institute spring 2026 blockbuster exhibition<\/a>, simply titled \u201cCostume Art,\u201d which will inaugurate the new, nearly 12,000-square-foot Cond\u00e9 M. Nast galleries adjacent to the Great Hall. The museum also announced Amazon founder\u00a0Jeff Bezos\u00a0and his wife, Lauren S\u00e1nchez Bezos, as the lead sponsors of the Met Gala for 2026, the institute\u2019s star-studded fundraiser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Monday morning, a labor union petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to approve a bargaining unit at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,14075,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-149306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-metropolitan-museum-of-art","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}