There was an unusual exhibition outside the Art Institute of Chicago Thursday evening.
About 200 employees of the renowned art museum and associated school gathered along South Michigan Avenue to rally in support of a unionization movement at the iconic cultural institution. If successful, the Art Institute of Chicago Workers United would be the first major museum union formed in Chicago.
The employees are seeking higher wages and better working conditions, which were exacerbated by more than 200 layoffs and furloughs during the pandemic.
“We lost many staff, and there was a reorganization that in effect doubled people’s workloads,” said Sheila Majumdar, 35, an editor in the museum’s publications department and a member of the union organizing committee. “The disconnect between what is reality in our day-to-day work and what leadership thinks is going on is just baffling.”
Majumdar, who joined the Art Institute nearly two years ago, said workers need greater transparency from leadership and more input into their decisions, which have taken a toll on employees over the past year.
Union organizers are collecting signature cards from about 640 employees at the Art Institute and the School of the Art Institute, hoping to get majority support and gain voluntary recognition for the union from the museum without a formal vote.
The support card process, which began more than a month ago, has not yet reached critical mass among employees. Majumdar declined to say how many signatures had been collected.
The nascent union would be part of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 10,000 workers at 91 museums nationwide, and more than 25,000 library workers at 275 public and private libraries, including the Chicago Public Library.
In recent years, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles have formed unions with AFSCME, union spokesman Anders Lindall said.
While some staff at the Museum of Science & Industry belong to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, most employees at Chicago’s other major museums are not represented by unions.
“We recognize and support employees deciding whether or not to unionize and will continue prioritizing the well-being of our employees — and will work with the union to do so — should they choose to unionize,” Kati Murphy, an Art Institute spokeswoman, said in an email Thursday.
Founded in 1879, the Art Institute of Chicago is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the U.S., with a collection of nearly 300,000 works of art, including such famous paintings as “American Gothic” by Grant Wood, “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat and “Nighthawks” by Edward Hopper.
Annual attendance is about 1.5 million people, but the numbers were down dramatically during the pandemic, with the Art Institute closed for more than half the year in 2020 and operating at reduced capacity for much of this year.
The Art Institute laid off 76 people between April and June 2020, and furloughed 109 employees this year between January and April. There are currently about 600 employees at the museum.
The union, which was announced on Aug. 3, would represent about 340 nonmanagement positions including art installers, curators, custodians, librarians and retail workers, Lindall said.
The movement has since spilled across the street to the School of the Art Institute, where about 300 academic advisers, administrative assistants, mailroom employees and other staff would also be represented by the Art Institute union, Lindall said.
In July 2020, the school eliminated 65 full-time positions, 12 part-time positions and 26 contract positions. Michael Zapata, an academic adviser at the school and a member of the union organizing committee, said the “mass layoffs” and the pandemic catalyzed the union movement.
“It’s critical for workers in cultural institutions like this to have equity, accountability and a voice at the table,” said Zapata, 41, a former teacher at Chicago Public Schools.
Thursday’s rally concluded with a march down Michigan Avenue and ended at the front of the Art Institute, with supporters spanning the steps between the two lion statues, the adopted symbol of the union.
The next step will be rallying enough employees to sign the support cards to gain voluntary recognition from the Art Institute.
“We have real momentum,” said Majumdar. “I’m very confident that we’re going to get there and be able to ask for recognition soon.”
