Minneapolis Institute of Art workers picket outside the museum calling for higher wages on Feb. 16, 2023. Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer.
Minneapolis Institute of Art workers picketed outside the museum on Thursday evening as negotiations over wages and benefits have come to a standstill.
The “informational picket” — not a strike — is the first time the museum’s staff have organized a labor demonstration in at least 25 years, as long as Debbi Hegstrom has worked there.
“MIA has a record budget this year. (MIA) continues to spend millions of dollars on acquisitions and leadership level salaries,” Hegstrom said. “We need to see the love. We need to see how much they appreciate us with a paycheck.”
The museum and the union representing about 150 curators and other non-managerial staff have been negotiating a two-and-a-half year contract since November, but failed to reach an agreement even after the contract expired at the end of the year.
Workers say the museum’s most recent offer of 9% wage increases over two-and-a-half years is too small and amounts to a pay cut given soaring inflation. The workers, represented by OPEIU Local 12, have countered with 16% over two-and-a-half years.
MIA offered to increase its offer to 15% over two-and-a-half years if nine of the highest-paid curators left the union, workers say, which union leaders balked at.
“I think that’s unacceptable. It’s antithetical to our union principles,” said Aaron Barger, a systems administrator at MIA...
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