Seattle Art Museum Workers Vote to Unionize in Landslide Election
The new union will represent over 130 full- and part-time employees across the institution’s three locations.
Staff members at the Seattle Art Museum have officially unionized following a landslide National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election this week.
The new union, Seattle Art Museum Workers United (SAMWU), will represent over 130 full- and part-time employees across its three locations, including the Seattle Asian Art Museum and the Olympic Sculpture Park. A spokesperson for the union, Gillian Fulford, told Hyperallergic that the new bargaining unit will encompass 21 of the institution’s departments, including its curation, conservation, facilities, and education divisions.
Workers at the museum first announced their intent to unionize in a May letter addressed to the museum’s Director and CEO, Scott Stulen, citing dissatisfaction with wages, at-will employment status, and limited healthcare benefits. In the letter, 59 workers asked the museum to voluntarily recognize the union, which would have let the group skip a formal NLRB election. The museum declined to do so, and in an election this week, 97 employees (94% of eligible voters) voted in support of the union.
SAMWU is represented by the Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28, which also represents employees of the Tacoma Art Museum.
“For a literal quarter of a century, I have been waiting for museums to do right by their staff,” Jenny Woods, who works as an installation design and registration specialist at the museum, said in a statement. “I think the museum does so many wonderful things in our community, and it’s time for SAM to do wonderful things for the people who make all of that happen, too.”
The union plans to negotiate for "sustainable and respectful" wages and better health and wellness benefits, according to the May letter. It also seeks to formalize "just-cause" protections for workers who currently have "at-will" employment status.
In a statement to Hyperallergic, a spokesperson for the Seattle Art Museum said the institution “fully accepts this democratic outcome” and will honor its employees’ right to organize.
“We look forward to sitting down with SAMWU leadership to begin negotiating in good faith a fair and sustainable collective bargaining agreement,” the spokesperson said.
In a press release yesterday, June 17, SAMWU criticized the institution’s decision not to recognize the unit and claimed that the museum had hired an anti-union law firm to discourage organizing. CEO Stulen told Hyperallergic that the museum believed a “decision of this magnitude warranted a formal election that aligns with the NLRB’s processes.”
The union election comes a year and a half after the museum’s security guards went on a 12-day strike, securing a nearly $3 hourly raise after stalled negotiations.
“We look forward to SAM respectfully negotiating a progressive collective bargaining agreement,” Fulford told Hyperallergic, “one that can set a new standard for museum workers.”
