Employees at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston won voluntary recognition shortly after the workers went to museum leadership in early April. They are now gearing up for contract negotiations, seeking better pay and other job protections. Local 2110 will represent just over 90 ICA employees, in roles ranging from visitor services to development to curation.
After three organizing drives, the workers never gave up — and the third time was the charm. With over 90% voting YES, these workers made it clear they are ready to stand together and have a voice on the job.
Please help us welcome the newest members of the UAW family.
Director LaShawn English spoke with the newly organized unit and reminded them that winning a union is just the beginning. First contracts can take time, but Region 1 is ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with them every step of the way.
Congratulations to the newly organized Michigan Science Center workers. Your fight, persistence, and solidarity paid off. Welcome to the UAW.
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.)
Staff at Space in Portland, Maine are joining the UAW/TOP that represents workers at cultural organizations, the staff and management announced Friday.
Space staff members will join the United Auto Workers Local 2110 Technical, Office, and Professional Union, in Region 9A which includes represented workers in museums, cultural institutions, publishing and education. Twenty-one full and part-time employees of the nonprofit organization will be represented, including administrative and event staff, according to a release from Space.
Since unionizing in 2024, employees at Nitehawk Cinema’s Prospect Park branch have been bargaining for a first contract that would improve working conditions, hourly pay, and healthcare benefits; concerns that management has yet to address.
On March 13, Nitehawk workers and employees gathered in front of the theater’s Prospect Park location to demand attention to the contract, which workers argue has been at a standstill for almost two years due to stalling and bad-faith negotiating on the part of the owners.
Nitehawk Prospect Park is represented by Local 2179 of the United Auto Workers, which also represents workers at Alamo Drafthouse and Cinema Village. These local cinemas have been part of the surge in unionizing over similar workplace concerns in local movie theaters within the past couple of years.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is laying off 33 employees amid a growing $13 million budget deficit, triggering renewed tensions with its unionized workforce and raising concerns about the impact of cuts on curatorial and scholarly positions. Please see Sarah Cascone ArtNet News Article dated January 30, 2026 for additional information.
Staff at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City are officially unionized. The newly unionized group, represent members across 50 departments of the Manhattan Institution and will become a part of UAW Region 9A, Local 2110. Please see Isa Farfan’s Hyperallergic Article dated January 16, 2026 to read more.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art staff voted to unionize with a 76% majority in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to become members of UAW Region 9A, Local 2110. The ballot count was 542 Yes and 172 No.
New York, NY— This morning, Local 2110 of the UAW petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a union election for nearly a thousand full-time and part-time professional and non-professional staff of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Workers cite long term pay inequities, lack of job protection and ever-increasing workloads as reasons for the unionization efforts.
Initial conversations about unionizing started in 2020, with staff sharing concerns generated by the pandemic. In 2022, the group reached out to UAW Local 2110, known nationally for organizing staff at major cultural institutions, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MoMA, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Guggenheim Museum, MASS MoCA, the Whitney Museum of American Art and others.
“The union effort was started during the pandemic by a group of long-time staff who know the Met extremely well and have been through multiple crises where we have lost staff and benefits.,” says Rebecca Capua, a Conservator who has been employed at the Met for 16 years. “We want our jobs at the Met to be viable long term careers — for ourselves and for those who come after us.”
“The Met is an amazing place. I’ve worked here almost 20 years, and love it,” says Alison Clark, Collections Manager. “However, the Museum often makes decisions without considering or consulting staff, such as changes to our Work from Home policy and erosion of our health and other benefits. Right now, we’re contending with several large scale capital projects that displace people and create a lot of additional work for the staff. Unionizing is the only way for us to have a strong collective voice to address concerns with the Museum.”
“Being involved in the organizing for our union has really broken down barriers between us as coworkers who work in many different departments at The Met,” says Tiffany Camusci, a Data Analyst who has worked at the Met since 2023. “As a newer employee, I got involved because a union will empower us to address our pay and our opportunities for career advancement at the Met. It’s rewarding to know that so many of my colleagues share similar concerns and want to address our workplace needs collectively. ”
The last few years have seen thousands of museum workers unionize. Employees at the MFA, Boston, the Guggenheim, the Whitney, the New Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, MASS MoCA, the Jewish Museum, The Dia Foundation, the Hispanic Society Museum and Library, the Portland Museum of Art are just some of the institutions where workers have organized with UAW Local 2110 . Many have echoed similar issues of low pay, lack of job security, and little or no transparency about institutional plans. The economic fallout caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic, which further exposed the insecurities of non-unionized workplaces, further galvanized workers to organize.
