Art Institute employees form Chicago’s first major museum union with AFSCME

Includes Librarians.

“In our organizing process, we’ve talked to people from other museums who were a couple steps ahead of us like the PMA (Philadelphia Museum of Art), and the Walker Center, and they have the same things to say: inadequate staffing, low pay and little to no communication between leadership and really everyone else at the museum,” said Anna Feuer, a member of the AICWU organizing committee and the acquisitions and collection manager at the Art Institute’s Ryerson and Burnham Libraries and Research Center.

Employees at the Art Institute of Chicago have successfully voted to form a union, achieving certification Tuesday from the National Labor Relations Board and ushering in a new era for hundreds of nonmanagement workers at the museum. The results were announced Tuesday, formally recognizing the Art Institute of Chicago Workers United. The first major museum union in Chicago will represent 266 Art Institute employees including art installers, curators, custodians, librarians and retail workers. “Winning our union means a voice in our workplace and a chance to improve working conditions for ourselves, our colleagues and those who will follow us for generations to come,” museum archivist and union member Anna Feuer said in a news release. The final museum vote was 142 employees in favor of unionizing and 44 opposed, with an additional 20 ballots cast but not counted because the Art Institute challenged the eligibility of those employees, the union said. The members of Art Institute of Chicago Workers United (AICWU) will be represented by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31 which includes 266 employees at the museum and 249 employees at the school. The two entities will have separate bargaining agreements.