[ More than 90 percent of workers at Dia:Beacon and the other
exhibition spaces run by the Dia Art Foundation voted on Sept. 13 to
join Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers’ Technical, Office and
Professional Union as part of a wave of organizing at arts
organizations. ]
[[link removed]]

DIA WORKERS UNIONIZE  
[[link removed]]


 

Leonard Sparks
September 23, 2022
Highland Current
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ More than 90 percent of workers at Dia:Beacon and the other
exhibition spaces run by the Dia Art Foundation voted on Sept. 13 to
join Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers’ Technical, Office and
Professional Union as part of a wave of organizing at arts
organizations. _

,

 

_Near-unanimous vote to join UAW affiliate_

More than 90 percent of workers at Dia:Beacon and the other exhibition
spaces run by the Dia Art Foundation voted on Sept. 13 to join Local
2110 of the United Auto Workers’ Technical, Office and Professional
Union as part of a wave of organizing at arts organizations. 

Just six of the 107 employees who cast ballots voted against joining
Local 2110, two months after organizers filed a petition
[[link removed]] with
the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union election. Those
eligible to vote included curators, gallery attendants and managers
working at the foundation’s locations in Beacon, New York City, Long
Island and New Mexico. 

The organizing effort began earlier this year, fueled by a desire for
higher pay, benefits for more employees and more opportunities for
gallery attendants, security guards and other public-facing employees
to ascend into administrative jobs, said Vernon Byron, who has been
employed at Dia:Beacon for nearly 10 years as a guard and attendant. 

“It’s time,” he said. “It’s essential in terms of opening up
opportunities, keeping the things that we do enjoy about the job and
trying to expand other things that we want the job to transform
into.” 

Dia, which recently raised its minimum wage by $1, to $16 an hour, did
not oppose the effort. A representative said Tuesday (Sept. 20) that
the organization “respects our staff’s decision to unionize and we
look forward to working constructively and openly with Local
2110.” 

The next step for employees is to choose members for a negotiating
committee and craft proposals to present to the foundation, said Maida
Rosenstein, the president of Local 2110, who described the
election’s outcome as “extremely gratifying.” 

“We look forward to developing a productive collective bargaining
relationship with Dia,” said Rosenstein. 

Local 2110 UAW also represents employees at the Guggenheim, the Jewish
Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art
and the Brooklyn Museum.

At the Guggenheim, art handlers, maintenance workers and other staff
voted in 2019 to join Local 2110. In October, they were joined by
conservators and curators. Staff at the Brooklyn Museum voted in
August 2021 to join. 

More recently, in May, educators, teachers and other employees at the
American Museum of Natural History voted to have District Council 37
of the AFL-CIO represent them in labor negotiations.

But the relations between some museum administrations and their staff
have deteriorated once negotiations over pay and benefits commenced. 

In August, unionized employees with the Philadelphia Museum of Art
filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board that accused
management of “bad-faith bargaining” and replacing full-time staff
with temporary employees to dilute the union’s size. The union,
which has been negotiating for a new contract since forming in 2020,
held a one-day strike on Sept. 17. 

ABOUT LEONARD SPARKS [[link removed]]

[Leonard Sparks]

Senior Editor

The Peekskill resident is a former reporter for the Times
Herald-Record in Middletown, where he covered Sullivan County and
later Newburgh. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Morgan
State University and a master’s degree in journalism from the
University of Maryland. Location: Cold Spring. Languages: English.
Area of Expertise: General.

* Dia Art Foundation
[[link removed]]
* Local 2110 United Auto Workers Technical
[[link removed]]
* Office and Professional Union
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]