Workers at six Bay Area museums are demanding better pay, more benefits, and transparency in employers’ decision-making and finances at an existential moment for both the institutions and unions.
At museums across the region, visitor numbers have failed to bounce back since the pandemic, and revenue continues to dwindle at even the most popular museums. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art reported in its most recent tax filings a deficit of more than $30 million and 300,000 fewer annual visitors than it had in 2019. The Contemporary Jewish Museum announced in November that it would be closing its doors for one year due to a steep budget deficit and declining attendance.
Workers at SFMOMA, the Asian Art Museum, Exploratorium, California Academy of Sciences, Bay Area Discovery Museum, and Oakland Museum of California are in various phases of contract negotiations. Last week, dozens of workers rallied outside the Hilton Hotel in Mid-Market, where directors of the Bay Area’s most esteemed museums gathered for a private dinner held by the California Association of Museums. The union members banged on pots and pans and chanted for better wages and work conditions.
“We realize it’s tough for museums, but so much money is going to the top of the ship that for the lowest-paid workers to earn so little, there’s an equity issue,” said Steven Sciscenti, a shop steward who works as a conservation technician at the Asian Art Museum. According to the most recent tax filings, the Asian Art Museum’s former director Jay Xu earned $658,908 in 2023, while some of the lowest-paid workers made just over $20 per hour.
The union action came after President Donald Trump fired one of the three remaining members of the National Labor Relations Board, the independent federal agency that enforces laws around collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. The dismissal left the agency one member short of the quorum required to perform its basic functions. It is unclear if Trump’s action is legal.
Workers at the Asian Art Museum will start contract negotiations in the coming months, and Exploratorium workers ratified a contract late last year. The union of Oakland Museum of California workers is in the midst of negotiating its first contract. SFMOMA’s union — which represents about 55% of the museum’s roughly 430 staffers — on Friday submitted new bargaining requests to management.
Céline Wallace, who works in visitor services at SFMOMA, said the union wants to solidify protections for vacation days and bridge the gap between the highest and lowest earners. Some workers, she said, skip lunch to save money.
Wallace, who works part-time, said she is grateful to have the full benefits. But the cost of insurance for herself, her husband, and their children eats up half her paycheck: “Not enough to live on, unfortunately.”
Last week, the Bay Area Discovery Museum agreed to voluntarily recognize its workers’ union after a third-party mediator verified that 77% of employees had signed union authorization cards.
Indigo Hua, the museum’s former marketing manager, said the union will release a bargaining survey in the next couple of months to better understand what workers want but noted that they generally are seeking an increase in pay, more commuter benefits, and a more reliable sick policy.
“The management keeps changing sick policy without telling staff,” Hua said. “It’s a big deal for frontline workers working at a children’s museum — they’re exposed to a lot more germs, so it’s important that they can use their sick time.”
J.J. Karcz, Bay Area Discovery Museum’s director of marketing and visitor services, said in a statement that leadership is committed to “good-faith discussions” on proposals on wages, commuter benefits, and the sick policy.
At the California Academy of Sciences, workers are fighting for their first contract after voting to unionize in July 2023. In the months leading up to the vote, posters warning of the supposed dangers of unionizing were placed at the museum’s offices and on internal websites. Union experts said the posters may have violated the National Labor Act, which prohibits employers from coercing workers against unionizing.
The museum has been running on a deficit for years. Last year, it provided severance packages to 38 employees.
Marie Angel, a curatorial assistant at Cal Academy and a member of the bargaining team, said the union has been talking to members about the Trump administration’s weakening of the National Labor Relations Board. “[It’s] something we are definitely concerned about,” she said.
“We’re trying to watch it as closely as we can,” she added. “Once we have a contract, things could get slowed down by the lack of resources at the NLRB.”