On Sunday, October 16, members of the first union in the history of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) approved a three-year agreement with the museum’s management. Returning to work the next day, they ended a historic 19-day strike.
PMA’s board of directors ended up accepting strikers’ demands, which is a 14% salary increase over three years (retroactively to July 2022), a minimum hourly wage increase of 15 to $ 16.75 , an employee longevity bonus (an additional $ 500 for five years of service), four weeks of paid parental leave and reduced healthcare costs. The union’s 180 members voted 99% in favor of the agreement.
They had been negotiating with the museum management for two years, not agreeing with the latter in particular on wage increases. According to the local press, the intervention of city and state officials, such as the mayor and the attorney general, as well as the imminence of a major Matisse exhibition have shifted the lines. Museum officials feared opening an international exhibit surrounded by pickets. A demonstration was originally planned for the VIP opening of the exhibition. It has since been canceled.
“I think this is a significant change in the way the museum has to look at its staff,” one of the strikers, who works at the museum as a photographer, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. This is an important step, not only for our museum, but also for other institutions in the cultural sector. “
