{"id":178525,"date":"2021-08-08T13:42:38","date_gmt":"2021-08-08T04:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/?p=178525"},"modified":"2021-08-08T13:42:38","modified_gmt":"2021-08-08T04:42:38","slug":"art-institute-of-chicago-employees-push-to-unionize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/art\/art-institute-of-chicago-employees-push-to-unionize\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Institute of Chicago Employees Push to Unionize"},"content":{"rendered":"

Employees at the Art Institute of Chicago are coming together to form a union, the Art Institute of Chicago Workers United (AICWU)<\/h3>\r\n

I<\/span>n a public letter<\/a> released earlier this week, employees at the Art Institute of Chicago announced that they are coming together to form a union, the Art Institute of Chicago Workers United (AICWU). \u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe believe there can be no equity without power sharing; therefore, we, the undersigned\u2014staff members from various departments and diverse roles across the institution\u2014are uniting to form our union,\u201d the letter reads in part. \u201cBy negotiating a fair contract with management, we will work to realize the museum\u2019s potential as a true leader among its peers.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\"Chicago,<\/a>

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Paul Brown\/Shutterstock (1950696z)
\r\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, America
\r\nChicago, Illinois, America - Nov 2012<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n

The Art Institute furloughed or laid more than 200 museum employees last year in response to revenue shortfalls from the Covid-19 pandemic. A majority of staff took temporary pay cuts last year, which were scaled to impact higher-paid staff, with museum leadership taking cuts of up to 50%. However, there were no permanent reductions made to top executive\u2019s salaries.<\/p>\r\n

Art Institute President and CEO reportedly earned more than $900,000 in 2018, while museum executives such as Eve Jeffers, Vice President for Museum Development; Andy Simnick, former Vice President for Finance, Strategy, and Operations; and Sarah Guernsey, Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs, reportedly earned $568,000, $300,000 and $250,000 in 2018, respectively. Annual staff raises were suspended indefinitely in response to revenue shortfalls and only reinstated shortly before museum leadership announced that they were aware of employees\u2019 intention to form a union.<\/p>\r\n

Art Institute staff are organizing with Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). AFSCME represents some 10,000 museum workers at 91 cultural institutions nationwide and more than 25,000 library workers at 275 public and private libraries, including the Chicago Public Library, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the MET, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in L.A. (MOCA), the American Museum of Natural History and many more.<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0This unionization effort comes amidst a recent surge of labor organizing at museums and cultural organizations across the country, including at the Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0\u201cWe are organizing a union because we love the Art Institute, and we believe that what\u2019s good for the workers is good for the museum,\u201d technician Thomas Huston said. \u201cWe want to secure a better future for the workers who make the museum what it is.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0\u201cThe museum\u2019s stated values include equity, sustainability and transparency, but it cannot make those a reality without listening to and understanding my coworkers\u2019 needs and concerns,\u201d said Sheila Majumdar, an editor in the museum\u2019s publishing department. \u201cIf forming a union does nothing other than give us a clear line of communication with our leadership, that will be transformative.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0Kevin Whiteneir, a reference librarian, added, \"Museum staff deserve an empowered voice in matters of our employment, compensation, and overall well-being. For too long my coworkers and I have appealed to the museum administration for better conditions and have received empty promises or have found situations have worsened.\u00a0 We deserve a workplace that is fair and treats us with respect, and this is our chance to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0\u201cWe are happy to welcome Art Institute of Chicago employees to our ever-growing AFSCME family,\u201d Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said. \u201cThe museum is a Chicago icon, part of the heart of our city, and the employees are the heart of the museum. By coming together in their union, these workers can make the Art Institute a better place to work, visit and learn for all of Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0The organizing committee is now collecting union cards signed by their coworkers. When a strong majority has signed, AICWU will ask the museum to voluntarily recognize their union.<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0\u201cEmployees should be free to exercise their right to form their union without employer interference,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cThe museum should not squander its resources\u2014money or time\u2014on anti-union attorneys, anti-union emails or anti-union meetings with workers.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0You can sign on as a public supporter of the Art Institute of Chicago Workers United HERE.<\/a><\/p><\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Employees at the Art Institute of Chicago are coming together to form a union, the Art Institute of Chicago Wo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":178524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"\"Art Institute of Chicago Employees Push to Unionize\"\r\n#ArtInstituteofChicago #chicago #art","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[54,64,115],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/adf-web-magazine-art-institute-of-chicago-employees-pushto-unionize.jpeg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178525"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}