Brooklyn Museum and Guggenheim Unions Ratify Contracts, Averting Strikes

Unionized staff at the Brooklyn Museum and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum have ratified their second contracts with their institutions, ending months of collective bargaining that carried the threat of strikes. At the American Folk Art Museum (AFAM), the union is celebrating the ratification of its first contract with the museum.

The agreements follow an escalation of labor action across New York's cultural sector. Last month, unions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and AFAM jointly voted to authorize strike action if tentative agreements could not be reached. The Guggenheim union had already voted in favor of a strike at the end of June.

One dispute remains unresolved. Unionized Whitney staff have set a strike deadline of Monday, October 5, ahead of the press and VIP previews and opening date for the museum's Roy Lichtenstein retrospective that week. Workers say they are prepared to picket the show throughout.

The contracts at the Brooklyn Museum and the Guggenheim arrive after a turbulent start to 2025 for both institutions, which initiated sweeping staff cuts that drew intense scrutiny from their unions. The Guggenheim moved to lay off 20 workers, while the Brooklyn Museum, facing a $10 million budget deficit, announced it would lay off dozens of employees. Both museums attributed the reductions to mounting financial constraints.

With three of the four disputes now settled, attention shifts to the Whitney, where the outcome of negotiations before October 5 will determine whether the Lichtenstein retrospective opens against a picket line.