Charges behind two open Art Institute of Chicago labor cases revealed as NLRB faces delays
The NLRB told workers behind the charges that a record caseload could delay them, and one has been open for over 15 months.
Labor and Capital
The National Labor Relations Board's Chicago region has told workers filing labor charges that it is straining under an "unprecedented volume" of cases. Two open cases involve the Art Institute of Chicago and the union representing its staff.
The NLRB released the charge documents behind the two cases to Urgent Matter after a Freedom of Information Act Request. The records show one worker accusing the museum’s school of retaliation and another accusing the museum’s own union of failing to represent them.
The board withheld its investigative files in both cases, which remain open before the agency’s Region 13 in Chicago, documents show. Urgent Matter previously reported the existence of both cases from the agency’s public docket, but the underlying charge documents had not been public.
The older case stems from a charge AFSCME Council 31 filed against the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on April 25, 2025.
In the April 2025 letter docketing the charge, Region 13 said that its office "has been experiencing an unprecedented volume of unfair labor practice charges" that may delay the sworn Confidential Witness Statement a charging party must provide to cooperate with an investigation.
"Thank you for your patience during this unprecedented time of case intake," the letter said. The school charge has since been open for more than a year.
The same letter instructed parties to withhold immigration information from the agency. "When providing information to the Region, do not share information regarding your or your coworkers' immigration or work authorization status," it reads.
Paid subscribers can read the charging documents against the SAIC.
Retaliation charge against School of the Art Institute of Chicago
NLRB records behind AFSCME’s retaliation charge against the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, obtained by Urgent Matter via FOIA.
Adam Schrader
The disclosures come as the Art Institute moves to outsource its custodial staff. The museum decided on June 29 to terminate 23 in-house custodians on August 14 and shift their work to a private contractor, Urgent Matter previously reported. The cases concern matters separate from each other and from the outsourcing decision.
In its April 2025 charge, the union alleges the school did not renew an employee's contract in 2024 and then banned the employee from both the museum and the school because of the employee's union activity. The employee’s name and the date of the alleged conduct were redacted under federal privacy exemptions.
Scott D. Miller signed the charge for AFSCME Council 31, records show. David L. Barron, of the firm Cozen O’Connor, entered an appearance for the school.
The newer case, docketed May 18, is a charge an individual worker filed against Art Institute of Chicago Workers United, the AFSCME-affiliated union that represents museum staff. It alleges the union broke its duty of fair representation.
Paid subscribers can read the charging documents against the union.
Charge against Art Institute of Chicago’s staff union
NLRB records behind an Art Institute of Chicago worker’s duty-of-fair-representation charge against AICWU, obtained by Urgent Matter.
Adam Schrader
The union “restrained and coerced employees in the exercise of rights protected by Section 7 of the Act by refusing to process the Charging Party’s grievance for arbitrary or discriminatory reasons or in bad faith,” the charge states.
The NLRB redacted the worker’s name and the grievance at issue from the released records under exemptions protecting personal privacy. The worker’s name appears, unredacted, in one of the documents the board released. Urgent Matter is not identifying them.
The Art Institute of Chicago entered that case on its own, though it is not a party to it. The museum’s Office of the General Counsel, through attorney Carolyn U. Boies, filed a notice of appearance on May 27, records show.
Urgent Matter obtained the two sets of records through separate FOIA requests the board partially granted. In the school case, the board released 19 pages of formal records on August 5; in the union case, it released five records totaling 14 pages on August 6.
In both, the agency withheld the investigative file under an exemption that shields records compiled for a pending law enforcement proceeding. Releasing those files “could reasonably be expected to interfere with the Agency’s ability to enforce” the labor act, the board wrote in the union-case determination.
The cases surface amid mounting friction over the custodial outsourcing. Art Institute of Chicago Workers United is circulating a public petition that asks management to halt the subcontracting plan and bargain its effects. “Give our custodians their jobs back,” the petition reads.
The petition says the shift would cut benefits, erase accrued paid time off and end seniority for the custodial team, and strip access to tuition programs, free museum admission and eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
The museum has defended the plan. It told Hyperallergic and the Chicago Sun-Times that it chose a contractor committed to hiring the current custodians at wages equal to or above their present pay, that displaced workers could apply for jobs with the incoming company, and that it acted within its union contract.
Follow along with other union matters at Urgent Matter’s labor tracker.
Members Discussion