Security workers at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) are on strike after negotiations with museum leadership over their first contract broke down last month following more than two years of back-and-forth. Staff there authorised a strike with an overwhelming 96% majority vote in October and walked off the job after a 29 November deadline passed without unionised security staff and museum administrators aligning on a contract.
The security staff, officially known as Visitor Service Officers (VSO) and organised under a worker-led union known as the SAM VSO Union, first began organising in May 2022. Following these efforts, union members then began bargaining with the museum in August 2022. In order to stay open amid the strike, the museum is working with a third-party security company.
The SAM VSO Union represents around 65 employees, and its core demands fall into four categories related to wages, seniority, healthcare and retirement. Chief among these demands is the restoration of retirement benefits that were taken away at the heigh of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as a wage increase to help offset the growing costs of living in Seattle.
“SAM halted all retirement benefits for all staff at the outset of the pandemic in addition to decreasing top staff (chief executive officer, chief financial officer, etc) salary by 10%,” says Marcela Soto Ramirez, the SAM VSO Union’s lead. “However, after receiving $4.86m in [Paycheck Protection Program] loans and laying off 76 staff members, the museum restored salaries for its leadership and executives. Both loans were forgiven (meaning the museum kept the $4.8m). After the union was recognised by the National Labor Relations Board in May of 2022, SAM partially restored the retirement benefit.”
Ramirez adds that dealing with museum administrators during this time has been “challenging”, claiming that museum representatives walked away from the bargaining table before the strike began, even as the union’s bargaining team offered to make several last-minute concessions.
“Despite the museum’s self-proclaimed image as a welcoming and inclusive community, representatives consistently dismissed and belittled the [people of colour] members of the bargaining team,” Ramirez says. “They also constantly minimised the experiences shared by the VSOs.”
While the two sides have reached agreement on some issues such as shoe stipends and paid parking for night staff, they remain far apart on pay and benefits, union representatives say.
“Though we are disappointed union leadership has chosen to strike, SAM respects the rights of our employees to be part of a union and make their voices heard,” Scott Stulen, the museum’s director and chief executive, said in a statement. “We have made significant progress toward an agreement at the bargaining table, including proposing a package that reflects our values and demonstrates our commitment to our employees. We are ready to implement these improved wages and benefits that recognise our employees’ service to our visitors and the institution.”
The union has been picketing outside the museum since 29 November. On 5 December, it held a rally outside the museum in an effort to get the attention of its board of trustees and administrators. Museum leaders have given the SAM VSO Union until 20 December to accept their most recent offer, made in late November.
