Brandishing signs and bullhorns, museum workers formed a picket line outside the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass Moca) in North Adams, Massachusetts on Wednesday (6 March) for the second time in two years. It was the first day of a strike that the union representing the workers has said will last “indefinitely” after museum employees and administrators failed to reach an agreement during five months of negotiations on wages; 97% of members voted in favour of the strike.
“We don't have an expectation about how long the strike will be, but we certainly hope that our strike will demonstrate the value and contributions of our members, forcing the museum to deliver a fair offer,” a spokesperson from United Auto Workers (UAW), which represents the museum workers, told The Art Newspaper. “Members are disappointed that we had to call this action, and we hope to see it settled soon,”
According to the union, 58% of the museum’s 120 employees are earning just $16.25 per hour with an average annual salary of $43,600 for full-time employees. In a report put out through the Economic Policy Institute’s family budget calculator, a single person with no children living in Berkshire County, where Mass Moca is located, needs to make around $47,000 annually in order to “attain a modest yet adequate standard of living”; a family of four needs about $118,000. The union is asking for an increase of $2 per hour in the minimum range and seeking a minimum 4.5% increase this year.
Negotiations between the museum and unionised workers have been contentious. The union filed unfair labour practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board in 2022. And in 2023, the union filed a complaint against the museum with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) when workers were ordered to remove flooring that contained loose asbestos without proper equipment or training. OSHA subsequently released test results that confirmed the presence of asbestos and is conducting an ongoing investigation.
“Mass Moca is proud to have a fair offer on the table that is also the largest in our wage history,” a representative for the museum wrote in an email statement to The Art Newspaper. “Our minimum wage proposal is higher than any state-mandated minimum wage across the country, and consistent with our prioritisation of wage and equity increases that have resulted in a 39.6% growth since 2018. We are extremely disappointed that the United Auto Workers union has decided to take action against Mass Moca in the form of an indefinite strike in response but are readying our teams to remain open and continue to serve our mission for the public,”
In August of 2022, workers at Mass MoCA went on a one-day strike amid drawn-out negotiations with the museum’s leadership. The one-day action led to an agreement on a first contract for workers in the union, who had organised in 2021. The Mass Moca union, which was first formed in 2021, is part of UAW Local 2110, which represents workers at many museums and cultural institutions across the northeast United States including the Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
The strike at Mass Moca follows recent labour actions at major US museums including a nearly two-month strike at the Hispanic Society Museum and Library in New York City last year and a 19-day strike at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2022.