Whitney Museum Union Sets Strike Date Ahead of Major Roy Lichtenstein Show
“We’d rather be working and doing our jobs, but our wages are untenable for making ends meet in New York City,” said the union's chairperson.
Unionized staff at the Whitney Museum of American Art are preparing to strike starting Monday, October 5, if they don't reach what they consider a fair contract with the museum.
After voting earlier this month to authorize strike action in conjunction with the Brooklyn Museum and American Folk Art Museum unions, the Whitney union has timed its deadline around the preview week for late Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein's retrospective, which opens to the public on October 11.
The inaugural three-year contract between the Whitney and staff organized under UAW Local 2110 expired in June this year. The wage floor for entry-level employees went from $17 to $24 an hour throughout the course of the initial agreement, and various clauses outlined strengthened job security, increased professional development, revised benefits contributions, and more comprehensive environmental safety measures.
This time around, staff are calling on the museum to ensure that the base salary rate for full-time employees meets the minimum figure for a single, childless adult to live sustainably in New York City: ~$71,000, as calculated in a City Hall report on the cost of living published earlier this year.
