In an update to a story we’ve previously reported on, Unionized staff at the Whitney Museum of American Art have narrowly averted full-blown strike action this week as news of an 11th-hour contract ratification came in on Sunday night, October 4. The Whitney’s union was set to picket outside the museum from October 5, and throughout this week’s press, VIP, and member previews for Like New, the Roy Lichtenstein retrospective, which opens to the public on October 11.
The Whitney union was among four New York City museum labor units under UAW Local 2110 that voted to strike amid prolonged contract negotiations this year. Unionized staff at the Brooklyn Museum, the American Folk Art Museum, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum secured contracts with their respective institutions in recent days without setting strike deadlines.
“Solidarity across all ranks of our union made a huge difference at the end,” said Erika Wentworth, who works in the Whitney’s graphic design department, in a press statement. “The Museum knew we were serious about striking and in these last few days, we made a lot of progress.”
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