Workers at the George Eastman Museum have voted in favor of unionizing under Workers United.
The vote was open to 75 eligible workers, including archivists, projectionists, and restaurant workers, among others. The motion to unionize passed 41 to 16.
“Creating this union is such a major victory, not only for the George Eastman Museum staff, but the entire institution, local community, and the labor movement,” said Andrea Edwards, a preparator at the museum, in a statement. “The pride and excitement we all feel was tangible as we took in the result of the election.”
Workers told George Eastman Museum management in late August that they intended to form a union. In an interview with WXXI News last month, workers at the museum cited opaque communication from management, lack of pay parity, and unclear job descriptions as prime motivators.
Museum leadership declined to voluntarily recognize the union. They argued some of the workers included under the proposed union were supervisors and were precluded from joining. The museum management also hired Government Resources Consultants of America, a firm labor groups say engages in “union-busting,” to speak to staff.
Management said it had hired the firm in order to ensure staff had all the correct information before going to a vote.
The George Eastman Museum opened in 1949 and today is the oldest museum in the world dedicated to photography, housing a motion picture film archive of about 28,000 reels. Since 2012, the museum has been led by director Bruce Barnes.
