After weeks of rallies against expected fired in the Brooklyn Museum and even a special hearing in the town hall, district Council 37, one of the trade unions representing employees said in a statement that leadership will offer some buyouts to affected employees.
In a press release from E -Mail today, March 10, a week before the cuts of the staff would come into force, DC 37 said that the museum corresponded to voluntary divorce packages and pension incentives – alternatives that the trade union had long argued for. It is unclear how many employees are eligible, or that dismissals are completely avoided.
“The outcome of these negotiations is proof of the power of trade union representation – when we fight together, we win,” said Henry Garrido, executive director of DC 37, in a statement. “We will continue to insist on sustainable financing for the cultural institutions of the city.”
Hyperallergic has contacted DC 37 and UAW Local 2110, the other trade union that represents employees in the museum, for comments.
This development comes in the middle of a one-month saga that started with trade unions that learned from expected dismissed, just a few days before the Brooklyn museum director Anne Pasternak confirmed the news in a meeting in an all-staff on 7 February.
With reference to an expected budget deficit of $ 10 million, Pasternak has drawn up a plan to tackle the ‘substantial cash flow problem’ of the institution, including programming reductions and salary reductions of 10 to 20% for senior leadership. But she emphasized that dismissals were inevitable, with salaries that form a significant part of the operational budget of the museum and the city financing of the museum that “in particular did not pace the same” with DC 37 salaries.
Last week, after the second trade union rally had pulled more than 100 people outside the museum, Pasternak announced the staff that the timeline would be extended by a week pending a possible financial boost of the city, where employees would buy a little more time to negotiate.
It is not immediately clear whether the museum has obtained a financing increase. Hyperallergic has contacted the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Brooklyn Museum for comment.
This is a developing story.
Note of the editors 3/10/25 9 p.m. Edt: An earlier version of this article mentioned a trade union announcement that the dismissals were definitively averted. The article has been edited to indicate that the negotiations are underway.
