Incident of Strike in MoMA

— Aug 10, 2018 by YIART

The atmosphere of the art museums in Europe and America has been very unsettled in recent years. Strikes and protests at major international art museums such as the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in the United States, the Louvre in France, and the National Gallery in the United Kingdom have emerged frequently, revealing the long-time exploitation of art galleries and the serious lack of protection for employees in the museum.

In August 2018, the incident of strike happened in MoMA has become white-hot. More than 200 members of MoMA Local 2110 gathered in the lobby of MoMA in the afternoon of August 6, the day before the union and the museum again to negotiate the unequal contracts drafted by the museum administration. Most of the demonstrators wore blue shirts with the white lettering reading, "LOCAL 2110 UAW/ WE DESERVE A FAIR CONTRACT". Some demonstrators held the sign with the messages such as "#WeAreMoMA" and "#MoMA Solidarity", and singing "Solidarity Forever" loudly. A large crowd of visitors waited in the line to buy tickets to enter MoMA, with the mood of participating in the carnival, in an attempt to witness the protesting scenes in the "rock zone."

As early as June 2015, protesters gathered at the entrance of the museum while MoMA was having the black-tie fundraising soiree, Party in the Garden of honoring the artists Richard Serra and Kara Walker, to protest against potential cuts to their health care plan. The scenario was in strong contrast and satire among the invited guests with well-dressed and the employees of MoMA who came to protest. The protests gave the labor negotiations a positive response to the improvement of medical benefits, and both parties had an understanding and concession on the cost of medical benefits.

Members of MoMA Local 2110 once again gathered in front of the museum to hold demonstrations on the day of Party in the Garden held at the museum. This round they protested against the proposed elimination of scheduled “step increasing of wages”, and increasing the number of temporary employees in order to reduce the cost of personnel. The workers are not satisfied with the museum’s desire of hiring temporary employees with a three-year contract, making them work crazily without providing the gradual increase of wages that same as the permanent employee will be benefited. Besides salary benefits, they also felt disappointed with the museum’s unwillingness to provide high-paying medical benefits. They attempted to appeal to the authorities to re-provision contracts that had expired a month ago in a way that attracted public attention, and tried to secure the rights of union members.

The fight continued until August this year. The scene in the museum on 6 August was in emotional excitement. A speech delivered by Maida Rosenstein, the president of United Auto Workers Local 2110 (UAW Local 2110), bringing the scene of the demonstration to a climax. Maida claimed, “We are the unionized workers of MoMA! We are curators, librarians, visitor services, stewards, accounting, and we are in contract negotiations. We thank you for your support and we have a museum. Solidarity forever is our messages. ” The protesters showed their confidence in the negotiating committee and believe that they have the ability to deliver their message and their concerns truly, and the committee will try their best to secure the interests they deserve.

United Auto Workers Local 2110 (UAW Local 2110) is an amalgamated union that protecting the workers covers in teaching, administration, publishing, library management, and graphic design to strive for their welfare. Over the past few years, MoMA Local 2110 represents 260 white-collar employees from various departments of the MoMA such as curators, editors, finance staff, librarians, archivists, graphic designers, lobby staff, development staff, conservationists, and administrative assistants, constantly negotiated labor and welfare issues with MoMA. Medical welfare, wage growth, and the protection of work-related injuries are all major concerns of union members, as well as the demand for the museum.

By publicizing the actions and itineraries through various social networking, together with hold protesting purposely during museum’s important events, the MoMA Local 2110 has successfully executed their strategy in forcing the museum look into their demands. The unification of the clothes with slogans and the activities in the form of a festive party projected them a positive image to the public and made the museum unable to take any action. The effect of this strategy is remarkable. Although it is the norm in the global art world including Taiwan that art practitioners or employee of art institutions are working in long hours, but the welfare benefits are poor returned. The normal state should not be taken for granted and even evolve into a pathological situation. The production in the art world relies on the complementarity of various links, art museum played an important role as a major gatekeeper to witness good art making happened. If the art museum itself has a pathological environment, contemporary art cannot be well developed as well.

Updated information on 21 August 2018:

After 122 days of contract bargaining and negotiations, the "MoMA Local 2110" and MoMA administration has finally came to a resolution. On August 17 2018, a new 5-year contract has ratified by 96% of the "MoMA Local 2110" union members by agreed with the conditions MoMA administration offered. Besides the major issues such as salary increment, medical welfare and promotion are improved, the "MoMA Local 2110" also won the contract negotiation on commissions and sales bonuses for current employee and the opportunity for new employees to understand the union contract and their rights.

The contract dates back to the conditions negotiated on May 21 this year, which includes a salary increase of at least 3% for all employees or a salary increase of USD1600 (depends on which amount is a better offer), and the 25% of low-paid employees’ salary is increased by at least 4%. This 5-year contract also ensures that all employees will receive 3% salary increment per year in the next two years and 3.5% in the last two years of the contract. In terms of medical benefits, the new contract also retains many of the healthcare benefits that MoMA originally intended to cut out from the next contract, as well as improved paid family leave benefits. It is commendable that MoMA will arrange extra time for the union representatives to meet with the new employee during their orientations, in order to provide information by understanding the union contract and the employees' rights.

Resources:

‘We Are MoMA!’: Union Demonstrates as Negotiations With Museum Continue by Andrew Russeth

Link: https://goo.gl/SGKo5H

MoMA Union Will Stage Demonstration Over Health Care, Overtime Outside Museum’s Gala by Annie Armstrong

Link: https://goo.gl/CscZhd

MoMA Union Workers Occupy the Museum’s Lobby in Protest as Contract Negotiations Resume by Sarah Cascone

Link: https://goo.gl/HcHkyj

MoMA Staff Secures Museum-Wide Raises After Four Months of Union Bargaining

Link: goo.gl/zaN4N

After 122 days of bargaining, the Museum of Modern Art and its biggest union have agreed on a new contract.

Link: goo.gl/LXSYHj

 

Figure 1 & Figure 2: Photo courtesy momalocal2110 on Instagram