LACMA workers vote 96% in favor of union representation

Workers at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art voted overwhelmingly in favor of union representation this week after the museum declined to voluntarily recognize LACMA United and instead moved the dispute into a formal election process.

In a secret-ballot election held Tuesday, 96% of participating workers voted to unionize under Cultural Workers United District Council 36 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, according to LACMA United.

“Thank you to everyone who voted to help build a better future at LACMA,” union organizers said in a post on Instagram announcing the results. “Stay tuned with more information on next steps and our newly secured Weingarten union rights.”

Workers announced their intention to form LACMA United in late October and presented museum leadership with a letter requesting voluntary recognition by Nov. 5, citing concerns about pay, benefits, and working conditions.

At the time, Aurora van Zoelen Cortés, a curatorial assistant for contemporary art at LACMA, told Urgent Matter that workers had not yet finalized specific demands around wages or benefits but were seeking a formal collective bargaining process.

After the museum declined voluntary recognition, union organizers said they filed for union recognition with the California Public Employment Relations Board, the state agency that oversees labor relations for public-sector employers in California.

Records posted by the National Labor Relations Board show that the museum subsequently filed a representation petition with the agency on November 12, formally initiating a federal election process.

By filing a representation petition, the museum moved the union effort into the federal labor system. Under that process, the election was conducted under the National Labor Relations Act, which governs private-sector labor relations and is administered by the National Labor Relations Board.

Although LACMA is operated by Los Angeles County, the NLRB docket treats Museum Associates, which runs the museum, as the employer for purposes of federal labor law.

According to the NLRB docket, the case covered approximately 284 full- and part-time employees across LACMA’s Wilshire Boulevard campus, the Watts Towers site and off-site storage facilities in Los Angeles County. The docket lists multiple procedural orders issued in November, with the case status now marked closed.

Once the election results are formally certified by the NLRB, the union will become the exclusive bargaining representative for the covered workers, requiring the museum to negotiate a first labor contract in good faith. 

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