For Folk’s Sake: Museum Workers Picket Gala Over Poverty Wages in NYC

Workers at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City joined three dozen UAW Local 2110 organizers to picket the museum’s annual gala at the Mandarin Oriental in Columbus Circle on Wednesday night, May 6, demanding higher wages and better benefits.

Union members marched in front of the Upper West Side luxury hotel for two hours, holding signs that read, “For Folk’s Sake” and “Self Taught, Not Self Funded” while chanting, “What’s disgusting? Union busting! What’s outrageous? Poverty wages!”

Workers have been bargaining with museum executives for higher minimum wages and benefits since shortly after they voted to join the UAW Local 2110 in June 2024.

Frontline workers at the Columbus Avenue institution, who greet visitors, run the gift shop, and maintain the building, currently earn $19 per hour or $58,686 per year, about $12,000 below the living wage in New York City as calculated by MIT. Maintenance workers earn a similar rate at nearby art museums, including MoMA PS1, whose staff demonstrated for higher wages two years ago. (The American Folk Art museum’s CEO Jason Busch earned $321,882 in compensation during the 2024 fiscal year, according to the museum’s tax filings.)