Seattle Art Museum workers seek union recognition

Workers at the Seattle Art Museum have launched a union drive and asked museum leaders to voluntarily recognize their bargaining unit.

Seattle Art Museum Workers United announced Wednesday that it is organizing with the Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28.

The group said in a May 13 letter to museum director Scott Stulen and the board of trustees that it has “a strong supermajority of support” among eligible workers and would file for an election with the National Labor Relations Board.

“We are proudly unionizing alongside tens of thousands of cultural workers across the country, and our security peers at SAM, who have organized in recognition of the systemic issues within arts and culture institutions,” the workers said.

The NLRB docket lists the case as open and says the proposed unit includes 138 employees. The unit would cover full-time, regular part-time and part-time flexible employees at the Seattle Art Museum downtown, the Seattle Asian Art Museum and Olympic Sculpture Park.

Supervisors, managers, confidential employees, temporary employees, casual employees, on-call employees, seasonal employees and guards are excluded under the proposed unit.

The new organizing effort follows an earlier union campaign by security workers at the museum. SAM VSO Union, an independent union representing visitor service officers, was established in 2022 after security workers organized around workplace concerns and won their first contract in 2024.

In their letter, SAM Workers United asked museum leadership to grant voluntary recognition by May 27, saying the group would withdraw its NLRB election petition if the museum recognized the union in a timely manner.

“Our solidarity is a movement to improve working conditions in alignment with SAM’s mission, vision, and core values,” the workers wrote.

“The challenges we face, such as unsustainable wages, subpar health benefits, and siloed, top-down decision-making, are undeniable, systemic, and have persisted across administrations.”

The workers said they are seeking higher wages, stronger benefits and job protections, including just-cause employment language instead of at-will employment. They also called for more transparent decision-making across the museum and a workplace culture built on “inclusion, trust, and accountability.”

They also urged the museum not to oppose the organizing drive or “waste resources” on distributing anti-union propaganda, continuing to retain anti-union lawyers, or holding mandatory anti-union meetings.

“We urge you to demonstrate your commitment to equity by respecting our legal right to organize our union without facing intimidation or coercion,” the workers said.

King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda congratulated the workers in an Instagram post, writing, “You are supposed to be quiet in museums, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need a strong voice on the job!”

The campaign adds Seattle Art Museum workers to a wave of museum and cultural sector organizing in recent years, as workers at major arts institutions have pushed for higher pay, stronger benefits and a greater voice in workplace decisions.

SAM Workers United said it is prepared to meet with Stulen and the board to discuss voluntary recognition.

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