 Whitney Union approves deal. The Whitney Museum of Art has ratified its first contract with UAW Local 210, which represents about 200 employees at the Cultural Institution. After 16 months of negotiations, the museum and the union said Monday. The three-and-a-half-year labor agreement expands unionized workers' benefits, including raises and enhanced job security. Workers at the Whitney overwhelmingly decided August 2021 to join UAW Local 210, which also represents workers at the Museum of Modern Art and the New Museum in New York. With a vote, the Whitney employees joined a wave of organizing at art institutions around the United States that was fueled by the financial impact from the COVID-19 outbreak. When the epidemic began in March 2020, 20 percent of the Whitney's had been laid off, and earnings had stagnated amid growing grants and inflation in New York City. Half of the Whitney's employees, according to the union, were paid less than $20 per hour. Talks began in November of that year, but quickly halted over problems such as health care and retirement benefits, job security for full-time and part-time employees, and pay. However, union members began conducting protests outside the Whitney's opulent events, such as the 2022 Whitney biennial and, most recently, the art party in February, to draw attention to the situation. We're happy to have negotiated an agreement with the Museum that boosts minimum pay rates across the board at every job level, Ramsey Colbert, a curatorial research associate and member of the union bargaining committee, stated in an email to ART News from the local 210 union. The pact also includes wage hikes that will push wages further higher over the following two years. Employee pay will be increased by 15 percent retroactive to January 1, 2023, under the new contract. They will also earn a $1,000 signing bonus and a 9.5 percent rise over the length of the contract. The minimum hourly pay has been raised from $17 to $22, and it will be increased to $24 per hour by June 2025. The Museum will be required by the new contract to provide increased hours to permanent employees before hiring temporary labor. Part-time employees will now receive pay holidays and priority consideration for available full-time opportunities. We're thrilled to have a contract that acknowledges our commitment to the Museum, Sandy LaPorte, a facility supervisor, said in a statement. We work in the shadows and have often felt under-appreciated and unheard. Our jobs are safe under this contract, and we have a voice at the Museum. A spokesman for the Whitney Tollday ART News that the Museum is pleased to achieve an agreement with UAW Local 210. We have negotiated a deal that meets the best interests of our employees after months of good-faith negotiations. We are looking forward to a long and fruitful working partnership with 210. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.