Hundreds of workers at the Denver Art Museum (DAM) have begun the process of forming a union. The workers announced their intent to unionise on 11 January via a press release and a post on Instagram, stating: “We seek to foster a creative, cooperative, and collaborative workplace, where all may feel empowered, enlightened, inspired, and included.”
According to the press release, a “supermajority” of around 250 workers from across various departments of the museum plan to form the Denver Art Museum Workers United under the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees-Cultural Workers United Council 18 (AFSCME Council 18). They have also launched a website with an open letter that outlines some of their motivations for organising, including the need for compensation “that accounts for experience, tenure and continuing inflation”. Workers are also looking for “more communication and transparency” with museum administration, as well as increased opportunities in professional development.
“Cultural institutions all over the country have been organising,” said Trudy Lovato, a gallery host at the museum and co-chair of the union organising committee. “I noticed, shortly after starting my position that many colleagues suffer from food insecurity, general economic anxiety and insecurity. These folks have multiple jobs, roommates, have to worry about getting to work, parking (there’s no employee parking), not to mention the body-stress that comes with many positions, in many departments at our workplace.”
Workers requested that administrators’ voluntarily recognise the union, but if they do not—as seems likely, according to Lovato—the next stage will be to hold an election. “We asked for voluntary recognition from the museum and they verbally and later, on paper (email) refused voluntary recognition and wanted to go to an election,” she said.
In an email statement to The Art Newspaper, a spokesperson for the museum said: “The Denver Art Museum can confirm it has received a request Thursday morning for voluntary recognition of a union from some members of its staff. The museum is aware that unionisation among museums has been occurring more frequently in the US and is open to working with its employees to explore the best path forward. If unionisation is the path they choose, the museum will work within that system. The Denver Art Museum prioritises its employees and their needs and looks forward to learning more about the specific goals of the proposed unionisation.”
The DAM workers are the latest and among the most numerous of US museum employees to move to form a union. The trend, which began the better part of a decade ago, accelerated amid the many cutbacks, layoffs and furloughs museum workers faced at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
