logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Free Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

The New Museum and its “Union Avoidance Consultant”

Ruth McCambridge
January 24, 2019
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
Stu pendousmat at English Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL]

January 23, 2019; New York Times

The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, which prides itself on its open-minded approach to art and declares on its website, “We embrace difference, debate, and multiple viewpoints regardless of race, gender, class, or creed,” has hired Adams Nash Haskell & Sheridan, reports the New York Times, a consulting firm that proudly calls itself a “team of experienced union avoidance consultants.” Its claim to fame? “We can help you quickly convince your employees to vote against the union, because it is a bad thing for them.”

For their part, museum employees cited the institution’s reputation and history in their initial announcement that they wanted to form a union. Curator Martha Tucker, who founded the museum in 1977, these workers noted, had “envisioned an institution that did away with hierarchies—not only in the art exhibited, but in the structure of the Museum itself.”

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

A group of more than 50 artists signed an open letter expressing support of the unionization effort last week. Workers at the New Museum are scheduled to vote today on whether to join Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers.

The museum’s formal position, expressed in a statement released yesterday, voices a politic stance: “We fully respect our employees’ right to self-organize, and we will respect whatever decision they make.” But it does add, “We don’t believe unionization is the best way to preserve what is special about our culture or advance change.” It also notes that the institution only hired the union avoidance folk for an initial consult and that they are now no longer joined in contract.

Employees of the Manhattan-based museum earn as little as $35,000, and the median income for the staff members eligible for union membership is $52,000—only $1,000 over what is considered a living wage. The unionization effort arose as the nonprofit prepares to do an $85 million expansion, raising questions about the institution’s priorities and its future. As a museum editor and union organizer notes in an interview for Jacobin, “The financial reality of museum workers is just not sustainable in New York at this point. There is an assumption that workers in this field come from a privileged background and can take care of themselves financially. This assumption excludes the majority of people and creates serious problems for anyone who isn’t coming to the museum world from a place of significant economic and racial privilege.”—Ruth McCambridge

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

More about: museum managementLaborManagement and LeadershipNonprofit News

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

You might also like
The Great Awakening: Redefining Work, Values, and Purpose
Rithika Ramamurthy
Walking the Talk: Reclaiming Dignity through Humanistic Management
Elizabeth Castillo
Bargaining for the Common Good in California
Rachel Forgash and Sarah Arveson
NLRB Board Demands Refunding to Meet the Rise in Unionization
Rithika Ramamurthy
Ending Poverty Pay for Human Services Workers: A New York City Story
James Parrott
Riding the Wave: Cooperative Conversion and the Silver Tsunami
Kateri Gutierrez

NPQ_Summer_2022

Upcoming Webinars

July 14th, 2 pm ET

Combating Disinformation and Misinformation in 21st-Century Social Movements

Register Now
Group Created with Sketch.
July 28th, 2 pm ET

Changing the Subject

Boards As Social Movement Spaces

Register Now
You might also like
The Great Awakening: Redefining Work, Values, and Purpose
Rithika Ramamurthy
Walking the Talk: Reclaiming Dignity through Humanistic...
Elizabeth Castillo
Bargaining for the Common Good in California
Rachel Forgash and Sarah Arveson

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.