Brooklyn Museum Staffers Protest Layoffs Outside Fundraiser
168Feb. 27, 2025
More than two hundred people rallied outside an invitation-only event at theBrooklyn Museumlast night in protest of the institution’s layoff of forty-seven workers,Hyperallergicreports. Past and present museum workers stood alongside supporters and local politicians at the demonstration, which was organized by District Council 37 Local 1502 and UAW Local 2110, the two unions representing Brooklyn Museum employees, and took place as the institution hosted trustees, donors, and their guests at its Chairman’s Dinner.
Facing a projected $10 million deficit, Brooklyn Museum officials on February 7 hadannouncedcost-cutting measures that included the layoffs, as well as 10 to 20 percent pay cuts for senior management, a reduction in programming, and the cancellation of inconsistently funded or poorly attended events. Both unions pushed back, arguing that the institution had failed to negotiate with their respective bargaining units and did not offer buyouts or furloughs before announcing the staff cuts, which touched over 10 percent of full- and part-time employees, including curators, educators, conservators, guards, and retail workers.
“We want them to respect our contract, which they did not, and they did not give us thirty days notice of reorganization, which they bargained with us in good faith over,” Local 2110 unit chair Liz St. George, an assistant curator at the museum who was affected by the layoffs, toldHyperallergic. “We want them to respect workers here at the Brooklyn Museum and show that by not laying us off, we are the heart and soul of this place, and this place is nothing without the people that do the work on the ground.”
A Brooklyn Museum spokesperson told the publication that the institution respected the right of the unionized workers to rally, noting, “To be clear, we made the formal notification of layoffs on February 7 and we have been in negotiations regarding the terms related to these reductions since that date. And we will continue bargaining in accordance with our contracts.”
The Brooklyn Museum is celebrating its two hundredth anniversary this year, and union leaders expressed dismay that the cuts came after the museum spent on a rebranding campaign, a new restaurant, and an exhibition themed around gold, and even as the institution forges ahead with its 2026 renovation of its Arts of Africa collection. Museum leadership, for its part—while acknowledging that the institution had nearly doubled its board and grown its endowment and its contributed and earned revenue—has cited inflation and “slow post-pandemic attendance recovery across the field” as drivers of its fiscal woes, asserting that staff wages account for 70 percent of its operating budget.
City council member Crystal Hudson, who represents Brooklyn’s District 35, home to the Brooklyn Museum, was at the demonstration and toldHyperallergic, “We have an affordability crisis in New York City; people should care about anyone who’s at risk of losing their job. The best possible outcome is the museum gets the money that it needs to avoid the layoffs and finds a way to avoid the layoffs in the interim.”
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who was also present at the rally, called on the city to cover the institution’s budget shortfall. “These museums are a public asset,” he told those assembled. “They are here to do a public good.”