Seattle Art Museum security staff goes on strike

SEATTLE – Holding signs that said “Show me the Monet” and “A livable wage for all art workers,” Seattle Art Museum’s security staffers began their strike Friday morning.

About two dozen picketing security staffers – or Visitor Service Officers – and supporters shouted slogans and handed out flyers as downtown tourists looked on, visitors entered the museum and passing vehicles honked.

“After more than two years of unsuccessful negotiations, SAM VSO Union workers are striking now until the board and museum leadership recognize their needs and offer a fair contract,” the flyer reads.

A spokesperson for the museum said that operations would go on as usual and that it has contracted temporary security services.

“Though we are disappointed union leadership has chosen to strike, SAM respects the rights of our employees to be part of a union and make their voices heard,” said Scott Stulen, SAM’s director and CEO, in a statement.

The guards, who formed a union in May 2022 and have been bargaining with the museum since August 2022, voted in October to authorize a strike if a contract wasn’t agreed upon by Friday.

It is unclear how long the strike will last, said union organizer Eddie Lopez Jr. in an email. “A lot of it is in the hands of SAM’s board and Scott Stulen,” Lopez said, noting that 89% of union members voted earlier this month to reject SAM’s last offer. The museum, meanwhile, left the bargaining table earlier this month and stated that the ball is in the union’s court.

Negotiations are at an apparent stalemate. Though both sides have reached tentative agreements around issues such as shoe stipends and paid parking for night staff, disagreements around pay and benefits remain.

The union, which covers 54 security staffers, is asking for restoration of COVID-era cuts to retirement benefits, a wage increase that covers the “outrageous” cost of living in Seattle, and seniority pay bumps, among other things. The union also said it couldn’t agree with a clause prohibiting strikes once the contract is signed.

SAM maintains it has “put forward a comprehensive and competitive package that compensates union members at market-leading rates compared to security professionals at peer institutions in Seattle,” according to a news release.

The museum’s last wage offer was $23.25 per hour (going up to $26.41 by 2027), above Seattle’s minimum wage but below the $28.70 needed to earn a “living wage” in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area in 2024, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator. Workers say that offer isn’t enough to live in Seattle and cover expected inflation. (The VSO wage is $21.68, the union said.)

While the union made its latest offer on Thursday, lowering its starting wage proposal to $24.75 and deferring immediate restoration of retirement benefits, SAM said it was “unacceptable,” and maintained a no-strike clause and voluntary union membership (rather than union membership being a condition of continued employment) were requirements for a signed contract.

The strike follows more than two years of, at times, tense bargaining. The union has filed multiple charges of unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board, an independent federal agency – most were dismissed – and accused the museum of contract delays, bargaining in bad faith and union busting. (The museum denies this.)

The museum, meanwhile, said the union hasn’t sought to reach a compromise and is unwilling to “appropriately engage in the mediation process.” (The union denies this, noting they’ve given up on health care coverage for part-time staff, dropped an expanded sexual harassment policy and more.)

SAM and the union have recently filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB, accusing each other of bad faith bargaining.

The VSOs first announced their independent union effort in early 2022, as they joined a growing national movement of unionizing workers at major museums across the country. More union efforts at local arts organizations have followed since, including at the Tacoma Art Museum, movie nonprofit SIFF and literary organization Hugo House.

But SAM’s contract talks with the VSO Union – one of the few independent museum worker unions in the country – have dragged on. The average time to negotiate a first contract for private, nonprofit art museums is 558 days, or about a year and a half, according to data from 22 museum unions compiled by advocacy group Museums Moving Forward. That’s slightly longer than the estimated 500 days for U.S. unions at large.

At about 850 days, SAM’s negotiations are among U.S. museums’ longest, according to the MMF museum union database. SAM – so far – is only surpassed by the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art.

Strikes are less common: Only 17% of 59 museums in the database, including SAM, have seen union work stoppages.

But they seem effective: Six out of eight unions that instituted or threatened a strike in recent years agreed to a contract in a matter of weeks.