Met Museum Workers Vote to Unionize
51Jan. 17, 2026
Employees of theMetropolitan Museum of ArtinNew Yorkon January 16 announced that they have officially unionized under the auspices of Local 2110 of the United Automobile Workers, forming one of the largest bargaining units at a US cultural organization. Staffers voted 542 to 172 in favor of joining the Met Union, which will represent workers in fifty departments, including curation, conservation, education, and retail. The museum already has two smallerunions, one representing security guards and the other projectionists.
Local 2110 represents employees at such New York art institutions as the Brooklyn Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Jewish Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the New Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.Union officials had filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board last Novemberto represent about a thousand workers at the Met, whose workforce totals a little over two thousand employees. The exact number of employees covered by the new union is unknown, as the museum has contested the eligibility of about a hundred workers, according to theNew York Times.
The museum is the latest of many US arts institutions whose employees have unionized in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, which brought to the fore issues such as pay disparity, job precarity, and a lack of insurance. Even as museums fought to restore pre-pandemic attendance levels and maintain fiscal stability, many continued work on major capital projects paid for by private donors who earmarked their contributions for expressly this purpose. The Met is currently constructing its Frida Escobedo–designed Oscar L. Tang and HM Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing, toward which the philanthropists for which it is named donated $125 million.
“We won because we were able to convince our colleagues that they don’t have to accept whatever is offered to them, that their experience and hard work have earned them a seat at the table,” said Met conservator Rebecca Capua in a statement released by UAW Local 2110.
“As one of the world’s leading art museums, the Met has long been committed to supporting its exceptional staff with highly competitive salaries and benefit packages that surpass industry standards,” said museum spokesperson Ann Bailis in a statement. The Met has said that more than six hundred of its workers earn more than $100,000 per year, and that salaries across the board increased annually by an average of 4 percent over the past five years.