Employees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York voted to unionize following a ballot held on January 16. Established under Local 2110 of the UAW, the Met Union will represent employees across 50 departments, including curatorial, conservation, education, and visitor services.
Employees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York decided to unionize as a result of the vote held on January 16. Organizing under Local 2110, affiliated with the United Automobile Workers, the employees formed one of the most comprehensive unions within cultural institutions in the United States.
In the vote conducted under the supervision of the National Labor Relations Board, 542 employees voted in favor of unionization, while 172 voted against it. The votes of approximately 100 employees whose eligibility was challenged by museum management were excluded from the count. As a result, 76 percent of participating employees supported unionization. The newly established union, called Met Union, will represent workers across 50 different departments, including curatorial, conservation, education, library, archives, visitor experience, and retail. There are already two other unions within the Metropolitan Museum representing security guards and projectionists.
Local 2110 also represents employees at major art institutions in New York such as the Brooklyn Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Jewish Museum, Museum of Modern Art, New Museum, and Whitney Museum of American Art. Union officials had applied to the National Labor Relations Board in November to represent approximately 1,000 employees at the museum. The museum’s total workforce is around 2,000 employees.
A Post-Pandemic Wave of Unionization
The unionization of Met employees is considered part of a broader wave of organizing seen across many art institutions in the United States in the post–Covid-19 period. During this process, issues such as wage inequality, precarious working conditions, and access to health insurance have been among the primary demands of museum workers. While many institutions have been trying to return visitor numbers to pre-pandemic levels, they have continued large-scale architectural projects funded by private donations. The Met Museum is currently carrying out the construction of the Oscar L. Tang and HM Agnes Hsu Tang Wing, designed by Frida Escobedo. The project received 125 million dollars in funding from the donors for whom it is named.
Speaking about the unionization process, Met conservator Rebecca Capua emphasized that employees’ experience and labor should be reflected in decision-making processes. In its statement, museum management said that it offers wages and benefits above the industry average, that salaries have increased by an average of 4 percent over the past five years, and that more than 600 employees earn over 100,000 dollars annually. Museum spokesperson Ann Bailis stated that they aim to engage in constructive dialogue with the union.
Representatives of Met Union, meanwhile, stated that unionization is only the first step, and that the next phase will involve negotiations toward a fair collective bargaining agreement that reflects employees’ needs and priorities.
