Over 150 individuals rallied outdoors the Brooklyn Museum at the moment, March 6, within the second protest towards sweeping layoffs on the establishment set to enter impact this Sunday. Forty-seven full- and part-time workers throughout departments are anticipated to lose their jobs as a part of the museum’s broadly criticized cost-saving plan to handle a $10 million price range deficit.
Members of the 2 unions representing staff on the museum, UAW Native 2110 and DC 37 Native 1502, assembled on the establishment’s concrete steps at midday at the moment.
“We should be at the table enjoying lunch, but the museum put us out here because they created a deficit and they want to balance that deficit on the back of our unions,” Native 1502 President Wilson Souffrant advised the gang.
Unions on the museum first realized of the approaching cuts in early February, simply three days earlier than Brooklyn Museum Director Anne Pasternak confirmed the layoffs in an all-staff assembly. That week, union representatives filed complaints with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, arguing that the museum failed to offer a 30-day negotiating interval as stipulated by their contracts.
Union representatives, staff, and supporters gathered on the museum’s steps.
Met Museum staffer London Lengthy-Wheeler displaying help on the Brooklyn Museum rally (picture Valentina Di Liscia/Hyperallergic)
The Brooklyn Museum has advised Hyperallergic that it’s certainly complying with the 30-day discover, by making the layoffs efficient March 9 and by persevering with to discount with regard to severance packages and precise positions to be reduce.
However some staff say they’ve solely obtained verbal notices informing them of the layoffs in February and haven’t had updates since.
“It’s been about four weeks since they announced this layoff, and I personally have not gotten any sort of written notice that I have been laid off, so no, they are not in compliance at all,” Michael Galardi, an assistant objects conservator who’s labored on the museum for the final 4 years, advised Hyperallergic on the rally.
A museum spokesperson stated in an announcement that “notification was given to both unions on February 7 and we have been in active negotiations on the terms of the reductions since that date.”
Indicators learn “No Layoffs” and “Shame on the Brooklyn Museum.”
NYPD police had been current on the rally, which was peaceable.
Because the deadline for closing cuts approaches, union members and staff say there’s nonetheless time for the museum to reverse the layoffs altogether.
“I really hope so, because I love working here,” Galardi continued. “We’re all here because we’re passionate about working here. We don’t want to see this place lose the people that really are essential to the function of it.”
The Brooklyn Museum spokesperson advised Hyperallergic that the establishment “explored all realistic options for financial relief before turning to layoffs and is actively making adjustments across the whole of the institution to right-size its budget.”
“No one wants to eliminate jobs, but the Museum must operate within its funding. Since February 7, in accordance with our union contracts, we have been actively engaged in negotiating the terms of reductions,” the assertion stated.
One of many many indicators at at the moment’s rally.
In one other latest protest, and through a particular oversight listening to in regards to the layoffs at Metropolis Corridor final week, union reps have drawn parallels between the shrinking of federal companies beneath President Trump and the “culture of austerity” being practiced by establishments, within the phrases of UAW Area 9A Director Brandon Mancilla at the moment.
“This moment should be a beacon of hope and change while Elon Musk and his cronies in Washington are trying to lay off all the workers that they can,” Mancilla stated in an deal with throughout at the moment’s rally. “So why in the world are we letting our institutions do the same thing to us?”
The Guggenheim Museum additionally introduced layoffs final Friday, February 28, impacting 20 staff efficient instantly. The potential for workers cuts on the Guggenheim was mentioned hours earlier on the Metropolis Corridor oversight listening to, the place unions warned of an impending wave of cuts throughout organizations.
Brooklyn Public Library’s Leah Golubchick and Lisa Goldstein with their indicators
At the moment, supporters from numerous cultural establishments throughout New York Metropolis, a lot of them members of DC 37 or UAW, got here out to point out solidarity for Brooklyn Museum workers. Amongst them had been close by Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) staffers Leah Golubchick and Lisa Goldstein, who used their lunch break to attend the rally.
“I was trained as a museum educator, and my very first internship was at the Brooklyn Museum,” stated Golubchick, now a youth and household providers coordinator at BPL. “We’re here to support the people who are on the front lines and making the museum an amazing place.”
Workers Author Isa Farfan contributed reporting.
Different unions additionally confirmed up in solidarity.
Rally attendees together with Crystal Hudson, council member for District 35 in Brooklyn, and Liz St. George, assistant curator within the Brooklyn Museum’s Ornamental Arts division and unit chair for Native 2110
