Employees at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art have formed a union in association with the AFSCME Cultural Workers United District Council 36.
The workers leading the effort, which they have called LACMA United, said they were being paid wages that haven’t kept up with rising cost of living and that employees needed greater long-term stability. They also called for “fairer compensation, expanded benefits and increased transparency in institutional protocols and resources,” according to a release.
The letter, dated October 29, was addressed to “Our Fellow Coworkers, Executive Team, and Board of Trustees.” In the letter, LACMA United said that “a supermajority of eligible staff across departments” had come together to form the union. LACMA United has requested voluntary recognition of the union by the museum’s executive team and board by November 5.
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“Museum leadership has received the letter from LACMA United,” Michael Govan, LACMA’s director, said in a statement to ARTnews. “We are reviewing it carefully and very much look forward to continuing to support our amazing staff.”
The unionization effort comes ahead of the opening of LACMA’s new Peter Zumthor–designed building, which is scheduled for next April. The new building, officially called the David Geffen Galleries, will see the museum’s installation of its permanent collection completely rethought, with works from various time periods and parts of the world shown together.
“We celebrate LACMA’s reimagining of the encyclopedic museum, presenting a more interconnected and inclusive narrative of artistic expression,” LACMA United’s letter reads. “As the museum evolves, we believe that this vision should extend beyond rethinking hierarchies of display to include prioritizing the people who bring its mission to life—from employees who care for the collections and develop exhibitions to those who maintain the museum’s infrastructures and engage with our audiences every day.”
The letter continues, “Many employees are struggling with wages that have not kept up with the rising cost of living in the sixth-most expensive city in the world. At the same time, employees in virtually every department continue to absorb expanded responsibilities and workloads, often without additional compensation, due to high turnover, limited resources, and positions that have been vacated or frozen.”
In the press release, several current LACMA employees offered their reasoning for joining the unionization effort. The testimonials range from members of its curatorial and collection management departments to its education, visitor services, and publications department to preparators, exhibitor designers, and registrars.
Sara Cody, who has worked in LACMA’s publications department for nearly 25 years and is currently senior publication editor, said, “Forming our union will ensure that we all have the resources and respect to consistently produce our best work as the museum moves forward,” Cody said.
Aurora van Zoelen Cortés, a curatorial assistant in the museum’s contemporary art department, cited LACMA’s recent exhibitions focusing on activism, including labor activism, as a reason for joining the group. “With such a rich history of exhibiting artists depicting revolutions, social, and labor movements, recognizing LACMA United would be an extension of those values,” Cortés said.
The AFSCME Cultural Workers United District Council 36 has aided in the unionization efforts at other LA museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Foundation, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and La Brea Tar Pits.
The larger AFSCME Cultural Workers United represents employees at museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Art Museum, the Denver Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Frost Art Museum in Miami, the Brooklyn Museum, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In the release, Charline Nacion, a mobile programs coordinator at LACMA, added, “Being pro-union means being pro-people! To support cultural workers from within the institution means to support the communities we serve.”
