Carnegie Museum workers vote to join United Steelworkers union

Workers across the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh system have voted by a substantial margin to join the Pittsburgh-based United Steelworkers union.

Out of the 529 employees eligible to vote, a total of 353 votes were counted. Of that number, there were 278 yes votes.

The workers will become part of a 500-member USW unit called the United Museum Workers. It includes scientists, educators, art handlers, front desk and administrative staff, gift shop clerks, ushers and other workers at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the Carnegie Museum of Art, Carnegie Science Center and the Andy Warhol Museum.

“We are thrilled to become members of the strong and diverse labor union whose founding members helped to build the fortune of our museum’s namesake,” said Gabi DiDonna, associate registrar at the Carnegie Museum of Art. “We look forward to having a seat at the table and a voice in the decisions that affect our quality of life both on and off the job.”

The system’s workers announced their USW campaign in June with an online rally. Workers filed for their election in October with better pay and benefits and a safer work environment among their concerns.

“We’re ecstatic to have the museum employees as part of of the USW,” said USW spokesperson R.J. Hufnagel. “The museums were built by Andrew Carnegie who made his fortune in steel, largely through the work of steelworkers like the members our union, the people who founded our union. So, there’s some symmetry there.”

For his part, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh President and CEO Steven Knapp said the organization is supportive of its workers’ unionization effort.

“From the start of the unionization effort, we have emphasized our respect for the right of employees to seek union representation if they wished to do so,” Knapp said. “Our attitude has been consistent, which is however it turned out we would continue to work in a spirit of collaboration with all of our staff in the service of our mission. We look forward to negotiating with the United Steelworkers to achieve a collective bargaining agreement.”

Hufnagel said the next steps for the workers include electing a bargaining committee to handle the negotiations and sending a request to bargain to museum management, all of which will happen in the next few weeks.

Aiyana Kachmarek, gallery attendant at the Andy Warhol Museum, said the covid-19 pandemic helped to inspire the organizing effort by putting a spotlight on on-the-job health and safety concerns that some workers may not have considered before.

“Our goal is to build the best, most welcoming and safest museum system for workers and for people of the Pittsburgh area,” said Chloe Deardorff, program presenter at the Carnegie Science Center. “The best way to do that is through collective action. We look forward to sitting down and bargaining a first contract that helps us to reach our goals.”