MCA becomes latest Chicago museum to form union

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Employees at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago are forming a union and joining a wave of labor organizing among cultural workers in the city and across the U.S. in recent years.

MCA employees on Wednesday announced their new union with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31.

An open letter signed by 32 workers said “measures to balance the budget while also aiming to return to pre-pandemic attendance numbers have caused a vicious cycle of staff burnout and turnover.”

If the union is certified, the Museum of Contemporary Art Workers United (MCAWU/AFSCME) aims to represent about 100 employees, including staff working in curatorial and collections exhibitions, building operations and guest experience.

The move follows formation of a new union at the Museum of Science and Industry last summer, as well as at other storied Chicago cultural institutions.

In the past two years, employees of the Art Institute of Chicago and some at its school; the Field Museum; Newberry Library; the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and several suburban libraries have all formed unions as part of AFSCME’s nationwide Cultural Workers United campaign.

Through its cultural worker organizing, AFSCME Council 31 has added more than 2,000 new members in Illinois in the last two years, noted Anders Lindall, spokesperson for AFSCME Council 31, which represents Illinois.

The Museum of Science and Industry’s local was certified last week, added Lindall in an e-mail. Members are expected to have their first contract bargaining session with management next week.

The letter from MCA employees cited being overworked “through near-constant exhibition turnovers, hosting in-person programming on par with a pre-pandemic calendar, tight publication deadlines.” Because of staff shortages, employees said they work overtime and beyond their job descriptions. “In short, we are doing more (exhibitions, programs, publications) with less (staffing and funding),” they added.

An MCA spokesperson said the museum is aware of employees’ intention to form a union.

“We respect the rights of employees to organize and we do not have further comment at this time,” said Saadia Yasmin Pervaiz, MCA communications manager.

Across the country, a wave of museums have formed unions in the last few years, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; the Philadelphia Museum of Art and more.

In their letter, MCA employees demanded fair wages that keep pace with rising inflation; stable benefits; workplace protections in light of layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic and recent departmental restructuring; and more. They also asked for “a fair process to resolve problems at work, jointly where possible and with an independent third party when necessary.”

In Illinois, AFSCME represents more than 90,000 active and retired employees of state, county and city governments, state universities, local school districts and nonprofit agencies.

Nationally, AFSCME represents more than 35,000 cultural workers — more than any other union. They include 10,000 museum workers at 100 cultural institutions and 25,000 library workers at 275 libraries.

AFSCME’s origins date to the 1930s during the Great Depression when a small group of government workers in Wisconsin banded together. Today AFSCME is the largest union in the AFL-CIO with 1.3 million members.