Employees at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) announced plans to form a union on Tuesday, November 4, joining a wave of organizing that has swept cultural institutions across the United States in recent years.
According to a statement shared with ARTnews, DIA staff are seeking to unionize with AFSCME Cultural Workers United (AFSCME Michigan), a division of the national AFSCME union that represents workers at cultural institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. The DIA union campaign is seeking “a fair, transparent, and respectful workplace that aligns with the values the museum shares with the community,” that statement added.
“Strong cultural institutions make strong communities,” Francesca Catalfio, a spokesperson for DIA Workers United, said. “We’re proud of the work we do to connect people to art and culture every day. Now we’re organizing for the same respect and dignity we show the public because a stronger DIA starts with a fair workplace for everyone.”
This October, DIA unveiled its newly reimagined African American art galleries, as part of a wider revitalization of its mission and building. The galleries were relocated from the North Wing’s second floor to a central corridor adjacent to the famed Diego Rivera murals in Rivera Court. The DIA is also renovating its Modern and Contemporary galleries on the second-floor North Wing; sections of the wing closed this March to accommodate the work.
Since workers at the New Museum unionized in 2019, cultural workers at institutions across the nation have followed suit. Last week, staff at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announced plans to unionize (AFSCME). If recognized, the new union, LACMA United, will represent over 300 museum employees across institutional departments.
A recent survey of more than 3,000 museum employees by Museums Moving Forward (MMF) found that while working conditions for unionized museum staff have shown modest gains since the survey’s first iteration, widespread low pay, burnout, and career dissatisfaction persist. The report also found that non-union staff earn about 78 percent of what their unionized counterparts make. (However, the report noted, unionized museum workers are “more dissatisfied on nearly all metrics than the average museum worker.”)
The report largely credited recent workplace improvements to a surge in union organizing. “We are seeing a massive wave,” Mia Locks, MMF’s executive director, told The Art Newspaper. “Fifty-five percent of unions at art museums were formed in the last five years.”
ARTnews has contacted the Detroit Institute of Arts for comment.
