Safety staff on the Seattle Museum of Artwork (SAM) ended their 11-day strike strike final week, with an amazing majority (98%) of unionized staff voting to ratify their first contract with the museum. The strike, which started on 29 November, concerned between 60 and 70 full- and part-time staff unionised because the SAM Customer Service Officer (VSO) Union.
The brand new contract took impact instantly, leading to base wages rising from $21.68 to $24.18. Employees returned to work on Wednesday (11 December) and, in accordance with Marcela Soto Ramirez, the SAM VSO Union’s lead, they “have been attending to work usually since then”.
Different options of the brand new contract embrace reinstating retirement contributions that had ceased on the top of the Covid-19 pandemic. often called employer 403(b) retirement contributions, they started at 1% and can go as excessive as 3% after three years. The contract additionally stipulates that staff are assured equal or higher healthcare advantages, even when the museum modifications suppliers or plans, for the lifetime of the contract.
“Total, it’s a nice win,” Soto Ramirez says. “We stood collectively and gained advantages again for ourselves whereas additionally restoring the pre-Covid retirement coverage for everybody within the museum.”
“This contract addresses the distinctive working circumstances of VSOs and the essential companies they supply whereas sustaining our dedication to fairness throughout the employees,” Scott Stulen, the museum’s director and chief govt, stated in an announcement offered to The Artwork Newspaper.
One other side of the brand new contract consists of a union safety settlement, which means that the bargaining unit is now thought of a union store so all future VSO employees which might be employed can be required to mechanically be a part of the union and pay dues.
“The union is happy with this success. After a protracted battle for this primary contract, we saved our energy and focus,” Soto Ramirez says. “The bargaining group labored arduous for this deal and the members stood agency, backing them up in a strike that lastly, because of the employees and neighborhood efforts, moved the museum and empowered individuals. All of us have seen and skilled the way it feels to battle and win collectively, and that can go away a mark on everybody.”
Whereas the union was capable of acquire floor on many key points, it additionally needed to compromise on sure calls for. The union and museum couldn’t come to an settlement on livable wages and seniority pay, as an illustration.
The brand new contract was arduous gained for the union, which had been bargaining for shut to twenty-eight months—primarily because it shaped in 2022. Based on labor information compiled by Museums Shifting Ahead, the typical size of time for a union to succeed in its first contract is 17 months.
