Roughly 50 maintenance workers and cleaners at the British Museum staged a brief strike this past Monday, the AFP reports, protesting the museum’s plans to privatize maintenance work starting next April. The workers are represented by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union and Unite, and both groups have expressed concern that their members’ pay and conditions will be affected by the plan to contract the work out to a single private company.
Unions
Posted inNews
Museum Union Battle Ends in San Francisco
After a year of tense negotiations, a breakdown in negotiations, protests and actions and then more negotiations, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1021 have settled their dispute! It’s a happy day for art news.
Posted inArt
SF’s de Young & Legion of Honor Museums Battle with Unions
Sotheby’s and its art handlers may have resolved their 10-month contract dispute earlier this year, but the labor fight is alive and well in the art world, and its current locus is San Francisco.
Posted inNews
Teamsters Press Release Announcing the Sotheby’s Settlement
The following is the full text of the press release by the Teamsters union regarding the settlement between Sotheby’s auction house and the 42 union art handlers.
Posted inNews
Sotheby’s Art Handlers Resolve Contract Dispute: IT’S OVER!
Teamsters Local 814, which represents the 42 workers of the Sotheby’s art handlers’ union, has settled their 10-month dispute with the Sotheby’s auction house.
Posted inNews
Fight Returns to New York as Locked Out Art Handlers Continue Protest Against Sotheby’s
Last week, Sotheby’s art handlers took their fight to London but today they’re back in New York and manning the picket lines on York Avenue.
Posted inNews
Sign the Petition Against the Sotheby’s Lock Out!
News may be slowing down about the Sotheby’s lock out, but the labor dispute between art handlers of Teamsters Local 814 and the auction giant is dragging into its third month now. Luckily supporters both on and off-line (Occupy Wall Street lent their voice last week) are not shutting up about this issue just yet. Hyperallergic received a tip over Twitter today that a new site title Fair Labor in the Arts has hit the web in support of the 40 union handlers who are still without work.
Posted inNews
#OccupyWallStreet Invades Sotheby’s Auction in Solidarity with Locked-Out Art Handlers
Occupy Wall Street and Sotheby’s art handlers have joined forces under the banner of fighting for worker’s rights and protesting corporate greed. Yesterday, members of Occupy Wall Street disrupted a Sotheby’s art auction to show their solidarity with the union art handlers of Teamsters Local 814 who have been locked out since early August.
Posted inNews
New Energy Among Art Handlers As They Continue to Fight Sotheby’s Lock Out
Hurricane Irene may be fast approaching, but there was another type of storm in full force yesterday in front of the Sotheby’s auction house on 72nd and York Avenue in Manhattan. Art handlers of the Teamsters Local 814 union, who were locked out of their jobs at Sotheby’s earlier this month,doubled their efforts to make their anger heard. Hundreds of workers and supporters took over the usually staid streets of the Upper East Side in front of the Sotheby’s offices, shouting for union rights.
Posted inNews
FROM THE PROTEST: Sotheby’s Anti-Union Games, Dupes Art Handlers
The Upper East Side is alive today with shouts of “UNION POWER” as Sotheby’s art handlers took to the streets to protest a new contract agreement that would drastically jeopardize their benefits.
