Arts Spotlight
Editor’s note: In this monthly feature, our arts and culture writers take a deeper look at the local arts scene, shining a spotlight on issues and trends, both local and national, and the art makers in our community.
On a soggy Thursday last December, as the tail end of an atmospheric river crashed down from the sky, two dozen Seattle Art Museum security guards gathered near the museum’s downtown Seattle entrance for the rainiest of union rallies.
Ryan Durr, a gallery security officer at SAM and spokesperson for its union of security workers, ascended the museum’s tall concrete entry steps — the stage for the day. Behind him, towering posters advertised the priceless art on display a few stories up: Hokusai’s famous woodblock-printed “Wave,” next to a gigantic image of one of Alexander Calder’s lithe, colorful mobiles.
“Modern art, ancient wages!” Durr recited into the mic. A crowd of about 20 onlookers holding up umbrellas and signs with slogans like “Ask me about my union” and “SAM will not pay me enough to live in Seattle” joined in as the rain carried on.
When SAM’s security guards (formerly called “visitor service officers” or VSO) voted to form a union in 2022, they joined a national wave of labor organizing that has risen since the pandemic. The arts sector, too, has seen a spate of high-profile union efforts in the last few years, as staff at nonprofits — who long have been expected to do their jobs out of purpose, not pay — push for better salaries, improved working conditions and more investments in equity and inclusion.
When they first started talking about unionizing in 2021, SAM’s security workers looked to the Frye Art Museum guards and booksellers at Seattle’s Elliott Bay Books as examples, as well as to the flurry of other workers unionizing at renowned museums like the Whitney, Guggenheim and New Museum in New York and major fine arts institutions in Boston, Philadelphia and Portland.
A lot has happened among arts unions since the SAM VSO Union started bargaining on a first contract in summer 2022. In fall 2022, workers at Hugo House, a Seattle-based literary nonprofit, also voted to form a union, hoping to codify equity efforts and better wages.
That same month, workers at the Tacoma Art Museum launched their push to unionize to address what the group described as “stagnant wages, unsafe working conditions, high turnover, and systemic inequity within the museum.”
More union activity followed in 2023. In May, cinema floor staff and cinema leads at the Seattle International Film Festival, a nonprofit that runs the film festival and operates four theaters in the city, voted to form the SIFF Cinema Workers Union. In July, staff at the city’s Office of Arts & Culture announced a union effort.
Meanwhile, an upswell of labor activity and strikes across the country — which organizers and media dubbed a “hot labor summer” — caught the nation’s attention. The Writers Guild of America, representing 11,500 screenwriters, and the American actors union SAG-AFTRA, aided by movie and TV star-studded picket lines, reached agreements with entertainment companies in September and November, respectively, after months-long strikes.
Locally, November brought a win for unions: After a yearlong campaign, workers at the Tacoma Art Museum voted to form the TAM Workers United, representing 26 workers who are about to start bargaining.
While many of these art unions formed during the pandemic — which, to many, laid bare how front-line staff were both the ones in the COVID-crosshairs and among the lowest paid — the movement had been brewing for a while as workers increasingly turned their attention to the sector’s pay and other inequities. The pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, as well as the rising cost of living, merely galvanized it.
That’s certainly true for many museum workers, according to a recent national study, which found that 74% can’t always pay their basic living expenses with their museum compensation alone. Just over half of museum workers indicated they make less than $50,000 per year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, museum employees made nearly 22% less than U.S. employees in general (as of December). More generally, workers in the arts, entertainment and recreation sectors make about 23% less than private sector workers in the country.
And so, as prices in the Seattle area continue to soar and the cost of living crisis intensifies — and some U.S. museums face budget crises of their own — what’s the state of Seattle-area art unions in 2024?
The answer — that much is still in progress at the bargaining table — is a little bit like the December rally in the rain. It’s not as headline-grabbing and ripe for social media virality as a picket line full of movie stars under the L.A. sun. Instead, all sides of local bargaining tables are currently enmeshed in the kind of work many often don’t see: the poring over financial documents; the Zoom sessions and phone calls with attorneys; the hourslong meetings on top of the regular workload; standing in the rain for hours.
Braeden Wiebe, chair of the SIFF Cinema Workers Union (which counts 38 people in its bargaining unit) said the union had been bargaining since late August. While the bargaining teams have made progress, he said, they’re still going back and forth on a few major issues. Among them are higher wages that keep up with the cost of living and guaranteed hours, which would provide more stability and help employees plan for other jobs and school in a way that wildly fluctuating schedules currently don’t allow, Wiebe said.
Still, Wiebe was optimistic. “We are hoping to wrap up bargaining in the near future,” he said. “We think it’s possible to reach a full agreement within the next two months.”
In a statement, a SIFF spokesperson said that negotiations have progressed “positively and quickly,” with tentative agreements on 75% of contract terms, and noted that management is hopeful a bargaining agreement could be ratified within the coming months. “SIFF is glad to have the opportunity to effect change that is beneficial to employees with the goal of helping them love where they work as much as they love the work they do,” the spokesperson said.
Workers at Hugo House also think they are within arm’s reach of a contract — and much like the workers at SIFF, wages are one of the remaining sticking points, said Hugo House marketing associate and union representative Forest Longeway. Longeway also noted that general “mismanagement,” confusion and lack of clarity as the organization undergoes financial turbulence have complicated things.
“We are sorry that the union feels that bargaining has lacked clarity from the management team,” the Hugo House board of directors said in an emailed statement. “We are a small volunteer team learning about this process as we go while also balancing other responsibilities amid organizational transition and difficulties. We are grateful for the union’s work in the bargaining process, and we look forward to continuing to work with them.”
For the SAM VSO Union, wages and benefits are the remaining hurdles to clear as well. To union organizer Josh Davis, the issue is simple: The people who keep SAM’s art safe are struggling to afford life in Seattle. (In a statement, SAM said it appreciated the union’s dedication throughout the negotiations. “We will continue to bargain in good faith and are committed to reach a fair and mutually beneficial agreement that accomplishes our shared goals,” a spokesperson wrote in an email. SAM said it continued to bargain in good faith, pointing to the fact that it had reached 29 tentative agreements as of the most recent bargaining session.)
“We all love art. We all want to work in a museum because we want to be a part of the stated mission of these institutions of upholding art,” Davis said. “And I think that has for a long time been enough for people to accept less.” But as wealth inequality and housing prices rise — especially in Seattle — that is no longer an option, Davis noted. “Prestige,” he said, “doesn’t pay the bills.”
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