Seattle Artwork Museum (SAM) safety guards reached a tentative settlement with the establishment yesterday, December 11, ending a 12-day strike that started on November 29.
The SAM Customer Service Officer (VSO) Union’s 59 safety guards voted overwhelmingly to ratify their first union contract with the museum, securing a increase in base wages from $21.68 to $24.18 that may take impact beginning subsequent month. The union’s adoption of the brand new contract brings an finish to over two years of stalled negotiations and a virtually two-week strike.
“When there was no further movement that was going to happen in the bargaining room is when we had to take it to the streets,” Andi Berkbigler, a safety guard for over 5 years, advised Hyperallergic.
The SAM VSO Union efficiently restored pre-pandemic employer 403(b) retirement contributions, beginning at 1% and rising to three% after three years, the union mentioned in a launch. The museum furloughed a number of part-time customer service staff in 2020, regardless that it obtained virtually $5 million in Paycheck Safety Program loans. SAM utilized the retirement contributions change to all employees, the union mentioned.
Earlier than staff started organizing in 2021, the museum’s hourly wage for safety staff was $17.69. When the good points take impact in January, wages could have elevated 37% for the reason that starting of organizing. In accordance with the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise’s Residing Wage Calculator, an grownup with no youngsters should earn $28.70 to help themselves in Seattle, and $49.50 for an grownup with one little one.
“In recent weeks, after 27 months of contract delays by SAM, negotiations have reached a breaking point, and workers have had no choice but to take drastic measures.” Josh Davis, who has been a SAM safety guard for 11 years, wrote in an opinion for Hyperallergic printed on November 25.
Customer service officers pushed for greater wages, seniority pay, a union safety settlement, higher healthcare, and retirement matching. (photograph by Margot Pasky)
The union voted to strike in October, Berkbigler mentioned, to push for elevated wages, expanded healthcare advantages, seniority pay, and retirement matching. Berkbigler mentioned the union has “since given up on” increasing well being care advantages for now, however the brand new contract ensures equal or higher well being advantages to workers even when the museum switches suppliers.
SAM VSO Union raised greater than $28,000 on GoFundMe to help its staff via the strike.
The employees additionally reached a union-security settlement, making the bargaining unit a “union shop,” which means that new safety hires must mechanically be a part of the union and pay dues. This may “help the union survive” into its second contract negotiation and set up a concrete relationship with the museum, Berkbigler mentioned.
Scott Stulen, SAM’s Director and CEO, wrote in a press release shared with Hyperallergic, “This contract addresses the unique working conditions of VSOs and the important services they provide while maintaining our commitment to equity across the staff.”
Whereas the union formally began bargaining with the museum in 2022, SAM’s safety officers first organized in solidarity with the neighboring unhoused neighborhood. In 2021, after the museum deliberate to put in bollards to discourage unhoused individuals from coming into the museum campus, SAM VSO Union’s predecessor group SAM Staff Collective shaped to stop their implementation. They feared the buildings, which the union characterised as “hostile architecture,” may promote violence towards unhoused people residing outdoors the museum.
The group gathered 600 petition signatures to stop the museum’s execution of the facade plan, however it failed to discourage the bollards. That very same 12 months, administration contracted a third-party safety agency to patrol the outside of the museum, in keeping with the union. SAM has not but replied to Hyperallergic’s request for remark about an alleged incident of misconduct occurring between a contract safety guard and an unhoused lady.
“What we first organized around was the museum’s unilateral decision to implement hostile architecture,” Berkbigler mentioned. The museum’s safety officers, although, have stood in opposition to “violent policing.”
This primary contract, Berkbigler mentioned, falls in need of a habitable wage and disregarded seniority pay, however it marks a achieve within the union’s standing on the museum.
“It’s a mix of emotions,” Berkbigler mentioned. “I was a little stunned that anything could happen after all this time.”
