Guggenheim Museum Staff Vote to Authorize Strike as Contract Talks Stall
Unionized workers at the Guggenheim Museum have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, escalating a labor dispute that has been building for months around wages, health care costs, and job security. UAW Local 2110 said 93 percent of its members supported the move, though the union has not announced a strike date.
The bargaining unit includes employees in curatorial, conservation, education, and visitor services, all of whom joined the union in 2021. They ratified their first contract with the museum in August 2023, a 2.5-year agreement. Since December, the two sides have been negotiating a second contract, even as the museum brought in Melissa Chiu as director.
Layoffs have sharpened the conflict. In February 2025, the Guggenheim cut 20 staff positions, and the union says the episode remains central to its demands for stronger protections. Those include advance notice of layoffs, improved severance pay, and lower health care costs for employees earning under $75,000 a year. According to the union, those workers pay about $4,700 annually for family coverage and about $1,600 for single coverage, before co-pays and deductibles.
The museum has offered a four-year agreement with a 3 percent raise in the first year, retroactive to January, followed by 2.75 percent increases in each of the next three years. The union has countered with a three-year proposal calling for a 5 percent increase in year one and 4.25 percent in each of the following two years. It argues that New York City’s 5.1 percent inflation rate, along with rising health care costs, makes the museum’s offer insufficient.
In a statement, union chair Drew Reynolds, who works in the education department, said the layoffs were handled “chaotically” and left remaining staff to absorb additional work. Anton Sherin, an archivist and union member, said the museum’s proposal does little to address job security or the financial strain on frontline employees.
The Guggenheim did not immediately respond to a request for comment. For one of New York’s most prominent museums, the vote signals how quickly contract talks can turn into a broader test of institutional priorities — and of how much cultural labor is worth when budgets tighten.
