Hundreds of workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art have voted to form a union with the United Auto Workers (UAW), the museum and organisers announced on 16 January. The election, overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), came after nearly four years of unionisation efforts by staff.
“We won because we were able to convince our colleagues that they don’t have to accept whatever is offered to them, that their experience and hard work have earned them a seat at the table,” Rebecca Capua, a conservator who has worked at the museum for 16 years, said in a statement.
The final tally came to 76% in favour of unionising: 542 workers voted to unionise, 172 voted against and an additional 100 votes were challenged by the museum. The contested votes stem from disagreements about whether or not those employees are eligible for membership in the union. To determine their elligibility, the museum and the staff in question will go through an arbitration process that both sides agreed to, which will be overseen by the NLRB.
Organisers say their efforts to form a union at the Met were fueled by concerns over job security, pay and greater transparency around employment policies. The newly formed union is now part of the local UAW 2110 chapter and will represent staff from more than 50 departments, including conservators, curators, librarians, archivists, digital and information technology workers, among others.
In a statement, a museum spokesperson says leadership “looks forward to engaging with the UAW as we pursue the Met’s mission to connect all people to creativity, knowledge, ideas and one another. As one of the world’s leading art museums, the Met has long been committed to supporting its exceptional staff with highly competitive salaries and benefit packages that surpass industry standards, robust professional development opportunities and a culture that values inclusivity, creativity, collaboration and excellence.” The spokesperson added that more than 600 of the Met’s employees earn more than $100,000 per year and that salaries have increased by 4% over the past five years.
“Organising with my Met colleagues was an incredible, galvanising experience that I will never forget,” Alison Clark, a collections manager in Asian Art who has worked at the museum for over 20 years, said in a statement. “Unionising with UAW Local 2110 is only our first step, and we look forward to negotiating a fair and equitable contract that reflects staff needs and priorities.”
Two other unions, representing hundreds of employees including the museum’s security staff, already existed at the Met.
The formation of the new UAW union comes as the Met pursues one of its largest capital projects in decades, the construction of the $550m Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing, which is expected to begin this year. Designed by the architect Frida Escobedo, the 126,000 sq. ft wing is scheduled to be completed in 2030. The Met is consistently the most-visited museum in North America, receiving just under 6 million visitors to its main complex on Fifth Avenue and its uptown venue the Cloisters in 2024 according to The Art Newspaper’s most recent analysis of global institutional attendance figures.
Over the last six years, workers at cultural institutions and museums across the US have been part of a growing unionisation movement. Union organising peaked during the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic and has continued to gain momentum in the years since. Within New York City, staff at the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Jewish Museum, the Hispanic Society Museum and Library, the New York Historical, the Shed, the Tenement Museum and others are currently represented by UAW Local 2110. The union also represents staff across the northeast, including at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Mass Moca in Massachusetts and the the Portland Museum of Art in Maine.
