Guggenheim Union Rallies at Carol Bove Reception
“We're out here rallying to put pressure on the museum to come back to the bargaining table with a bit more movability on their positions,” said one of the workers.
It was a favorably mild-weathered evening in New York yesterday, March 4, when thunderous calls for a fair contract rumbled through the air at the Guggenheim Museum's opening reception for Carol Bove's solo exhibition.
With negotiations in progress for the next contract ratification, museum workers unionized under Local 2110 UAW rallied outside the famous rotunda to inform VIP attendees about exorbitant healthcare benefit costs and job insecurity — especially highlighting the abrupt layoff of 20 Guggenheim employees last year.
A group of around 30 museum workers and allies picketed outside with signs, chants, and multicolored flyers for event goers and passersby. Leading the charge last night were museum educator Drew Reynolds, chair of the Guggenheim Museum union, and veteran labor organizer Maida Rosenstein of Local 2110 UAW.
“We're out here rallying to put pressure on the museum to come back to the bargaining table with a bit more movability on their positions,” Reynolds, who's worked at the museum for more than two years, told Hyperallergic over the din of megaphoned staff members and cars honking in support. They alleged that the museum has rejected several of the union's proposals to strengthen job security protections in the contract, and reduce the costs for healthcare benefits, which they say cost an annual minimum of $1,600 for individual plans, and upwards of $4,500 for family plans.
The worker also noted that after last year's layoffs affected 14 union positions, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge against the museum, alleging that it violated a contract clause requiring advance notice for terminations.
Reynolds and Rosenstein both alleged that those laid off were only informed some 30 minutes before they were escorted from the premises, and according to the former, the museum “still denies any type of wrongdoing about the way they conducted the layoffs.”
The museum did not immediately respond to Hyperallergic's request for comment on these allegations.
Rosenstein also accused the museum of failing to justify its selection of employees who were terminated, and ultimately hired a new crew afterwards — “[The museum] claims a deficit, but they are willing to spend a lot of money on outside consultants while sacrificing its own staff,” she said.
Criticizing the $24 hourly rate for entry-level staff, Rosenstein explained that scheduled pay increases don't add up to much as they're based on the museum's “low” wages and salaries. She added that the staff cuts also doubled the workload across the affected departments.
Liz Jaff, the Guggenheim's lead paper specialist and shop steward for the museum's other union IUOE (International Union of Operating Engineers) Local 30, was picketing along with those represented by Local 2110. She told Hyperallergic that “both of our unions support one another.”
“These are our coworkers, and they deserve a fair contract,” she said. “I'm here tonight because I want to see that.”
As nighttime rolled in and museum guests spilled out of Ubers and taxis in front of the museum, a good number of them accepted the union flyers that were being passed out. In the line for entry, attendee Maggie Heath said they were glad that the union “was ensuring visibility on a night like this, when there's definitely lots of millionaires here tonight.”
“Everyone I've spoken to who has unionized along the Museum Mile and beyond has one thing in common,” said Rosenstein, whose glossy pro-union buttons flashed from car headlights. “They love their jobs. They love the work that they do — they just want to make it sustainable.”
