New York Transit Museum workers file NLRB union petition

Workers at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board last week in their bid for union recognition.

The New York Transit Museum Collective publicly announced its intention to unionize through AFSCME Cultural Workers United, District Council 37, on February 4.

“We have officially filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a union election!” the union said in a statement on social media. “As a reminder, we are still asking the New York Transit Museum to voluntarily recognize our union to avoid a lengthy and expensive legal process!”

NLRB records show that the petition was filed on March 3 with the election notice sent on Friday.

The union would cover 40 workers, including museum educators and staff in visitor experience, marketing, collections, development and public programs. It would not include any employees of the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

The workers have also created a petition seeking support for their unionization efforts, which has gathered 853 signatures so far.

The news comes after about three dozen workers at the museum received voluntary recognition from management for organizing under Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union.

In those unionization efforts, workers said they were driven to organize because of low wages, the reassignment of some full-time employees to part-time status, and a loss of benefits without any corresponding wage increases.

The organizing push comes as labor disputes and union campaigns continue to surface at major New York museums.

Earlier this year, records obtained by Urgent Matter showed that the NLRB is investigating a claim that the Metropolitan Museum of Art suspended a worker to deter union activity. NLRB records show that case remains open.

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