Unionized employees at the Brooklyn Museum and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum have ratified new contracts, averting potential strikes after a period of tense bargaining and protest. UAW Local 2110 announced the agreements as New York museum workers press for improved wages, health care and job security. Contracts were also ratified at the American Folk Art Museum and the Jewish Museum, while the Whitney Museum union still faces an October 5 strike deadline.
Ratifications ease immediate strike pressure
The Brooklyn Museum and the American Folk Art Museum finalized four-year contracts this week, according to the supplied report. The Guggenheim and Jewish Museum unions ratified their agreements in September. The agreements close out a difficult stretch of negotiations at those institutions, though bargaining continues elsewhere in the city.
In late September, Brooklyn Museum workers joined Whitney and American Folk Art Museum employees in strike-authorization votes. Those votes reflected disputes over job security, affordable health care and wages amid New York City’s high cost of living. The Brooklyn and Guggenheim ratifications now avert the immediate possibility of strikes at those two museums.
Brooklyn contract sets pay floors
The Brooklyn Museum’s second union contract guarantees annual raises and raises minimum salaries for full-time roles to between $63,585 and $129,854, depending on position level. The new minimums apply retroactively from July 1 and are set to increase by a further 10.34 percent by the contract’s end.
Visitor-services and retail associates will earn between $28.69 and $32 an hour by the end of the agreement. The deal follows a dispute over the museum’s finances and staffing: in early 2025, leadership proposed cutting more than 10 percent of staff while addressing a $10 million operating deficit. The proposed cuts did not take place; after weeks of union rallies, the New York City Council provided a $2.5 million grant to help offset the shortfall.
Guggenheim workers secure a second agreement
The Guggenheim union represents about 150 curators, conservators, educators and public programmers. After organizing in 2021, its members ratified a first contract in 2023, lasting two and a half years. The newly ratified agreement is the union’s second contract with the museum.
Negotiations for the new deal began in December 2025, following the museum’s announcement in February 2025 that it would lay off 20 employees, or 7 percent of its workforce. The union sought stronger job-security protections, including advance notice of layoffs, and better severance pay. In March, members picketed the opening reception for the museum’s Carol Bove survey during the negotiations.
Other museum talks continue
The American Folk Art Museum union has ratified its first contract after nearly two years of bargaining. It guarantees staff annual wage increases totaling 13.6 percent over four years; entry-level store, security and facilities employees receive increases of 8 to 22 percent, retroactive to July 1.
The AFAM agreement also provides a binding grievance process, additional pay for extra duties or emergency on-site work, limits the use of temporary and subcontracted labor in place of regular staff, and guarantees health coverage without employee premium contributions. UAW Local 2110 says it is negotiating contracts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the South Street Seaport Museum and the Noguchi Museum.
Whitney deadline remains in view
The Whitney Museum union has not reached a new agreement and has set October 5 as its strike deadline. That date falls three days before member previews for the museum’s Roy Lichtenstein retrospective, placing the unresolved labor dispute close to a major exhibition opening.
Roughly 200 Whitney employees unionized in 2021, after two rounds of layoffs reduced the workforce by 20 percent. The contrast with the Brooklyn and Guggenheim settlements is immediate: those ratifications have removed the threat of strikes at two museums, but the Whitney deadline and bargaining at four other institutions keep labor negotiations prominent across New York’s museum sector.
Takeaway: Brooklyn and Guggenheim workers have ratified contracts and averted strikes, while the Whitney’s October 5 deadline underscores that New York museum labor disputes are not over.
What this piece draws on
- usaartnews.com — “Guggenheim, Brooklyn Museum Unions Ratify Contracts”
- hyperallergic.com — “Three NYC Museum Unions Ratify Contracts, Averting Strikes”
- artnews.com — “Brooklyn Museum, Guggenheim Staff Ratify Second Union”
- theartnewspaper.com — “Workers at the Whitney Museum vote to strike – The Art Newspaper – International art news and events”
- library.ccsf.edu — “Web – Studio Arts – CCSF Library at City College of San Francisco”
