Some Brooklyn Museum employees set strike date of Nov. 8 if new contract isn’t reached

By Brooklyn Magazine Staff

Unionized employees at Brooklyn Museum are threatening to strike in one week if they don’t reach a new contract with the 128-year-old cultural institution.

Issues at the heart of the disagreement are wages and “unfair labor practices,” according to a release from Local 2110 UAW. The chapter represents about one-third of the museum’s 400 employees and has been representing them since 2022 as they seek their first union contract.

“We have been trying to negotiate a fair contract with the museum for two years and at this point, we feel we have no choice but to set a strike deadline,” said Elizabeth St. George, an assistant curator of decorative arts, in the release. In April, union members frustrated with stalled contract negotiations picketed the museum’s high profile VIP Artists Ball.

Lauren Bradley, an associate conservator, said that “low salaries and lack of real career development” make working at the museum “unsustainable.”

The union accuses the museum of giving union jobs to non-union workers and changing employment terms, resulting in them filing “numerous unfair labor practice charges” with the National Labor Relations Board.

As part of the new contract, unionized employees are proposing salary increases of 19.5 percent over a four-and-a-half-year contract and wants the museum’s part-time staff to receive the same percentage increases as others working there.

Brooklyn Museum meanwhile tells Brooklyn Magazine that it has been “negotiating in good faith” with UAW Local 2110 and that it has reached “tentative agreements on virtually all contractual provisions.”

A museum spokesperson also pointed out that it has offered a roughly 9 percent wage increase over the next three fiscal years, “which represents deficit spending for the museum and is in line with recently negotiated annual increases at other museums in the city.”

It’s also “aware” of the November 8 strike threat and that the museum will nonetheless be “open and operating in the interest of serving our members and the public.”

“We remain committed to reaching a fair agreement with UAW Local 2110 — one that allows us to take care of our employees and support our shared mission,” a museum statement said. “We are optimistic the bargaining teams will come to a positive solution.”