Willig, Williams & Davidson Helps Philadelphia Museum of Art Union Secure First Collective Bargaining Agreement

PHILADELPHIA (December 2022) – Philadelphia Museum of Art union members represented by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) District Council 47, Local 397, recently ratified an agreement with the Museum, ending a historic three-week strike and two years of fighting for a fair, first-ever contract for the union.

Willig, Williams & Davidson represented the union from its initial formation, with firm attorney Lauren Hoye working with organizers to ensure the certification of the bargaining unit represented by the union in proceedings before Region 4 of the National Labor Relations Board. Subsequently, Managing Partner Deborah R. Willig, Hoye, and firm partner Jessica Caggiano represented the union in contract negotiations and in connection with unfair labor practice charges filed by the union.

The new contract runs through June 30, 2025 and includes wage increases totaling 14 percent across the life of the contract, substantial improvements in employee health care costs, an increase in the minimum hourly wage from $15 an hour to $16.75 an hour, raising the minimum salary to $42,000 a year, compensation for longevity, a new benefit of four weeks of paid parental leave, and more.

“The Philadelphia Museum of Art is a world-class museum, and now, the dedicated employees who create that cultural experience finally are being treated with the respect they deserve,” said Willig.

The vote to form the museum employees’ union was overwhelming, Willig said. “Nearly 9 out of 10 people in the unit – 89 percent – voted to join the union,” Willig said. “It is also what we call a wall-to-wall bargaining unit. So it includes a variety of job titles, from a visitor services assistant, and retail workers in the museum store to assistant curators, exhibition assistants, lighting designers, and the people who arrange all of the installations and the exhibits at the museum.”

Negotiating a new union’s first contract with its employer is a crucial time. The first contract must address every aspect of the workplace relationship between the unionized employees and management, from conditions of employment such as discipline and discharge, dispute resolution procedures to salaries, benefits, pensions, and more. Though the union began to bargain for its first contract immediately after the union vote in 2020, infrequent bargaining sessions and a hardline stance from the museum’s management dragged the process out for two years.

Despite having a $600 million endowment, and a $66 million a year budget, and financial support from the city for operating expenses, Willig said the museum balked at increasing the employees’ base pay, which is below industry standards. For example, the mean salary for an assistant curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art was $55,000, while the mean salary for similar positions was about $70,000, Willig said, citing figures from the American Association of Museum Directors annual salary survey.

After negotiations failed to reach a compromise, the workers held a one-day warning strike on September 16 and struck again on September 26. The two sides eventually reached a contract agreement that ended the strike on October 16.

In a statement from AFSCME, museum educator and president of Local 397 Adam Rizzo said, “I could not be more proud of what the PMA union members have achieved. This contract is a game-changer for current PMA workers, for the future of the museum and for workers throughout the cultural sector. Our victory is the result of solidarity: our members’ solidarity with one another and our community’s solidarity with us.”

Willig said the example set by the museum union members will send a powerful message to workers everywhere: “There’s power in collective action.”