In a special supervision hearing in New York City Hall this morning, 28 February, Brooklyn Museum employees, representatives of the Union and municipal councilors called on the institution to “export all options” before they implemented the recently announced mass dismissal that met 47 full and part-time employees. Earlier this week, District Council 37 Local 1502 and UAW Local 2110 – the two trade unions representing employees in the museum – took themselves outside the institution with hundreds of supporters to protest against the radical staff treatments, which has described leadership as inevitable in the light of a budget deficit of $ 10 million.
“Me and my colleagues were shocked and sad that the place we love had shuffled his old values for a doe-like power consolidation,” said June Lei, local 1502 secretary and full-time producer in the Brooklyn Museum, which testified for hearing. “Nowadays it balances its budget on the backs of employees who lose their benefits, salaries, pensions and trade union membership.”
The Civil Servants and Labor Committee, chaired by councilor Carmen De la Rosa, called today’s hearing to investigate whether employees were treated reasonably well by the museum and assess the dismissals in the light of the financial circumstances of the institution. The committee has also encouraged individuals to submit a written testimony online.
At the start of the hearing, De la Rosa asked Laurie Cumbo, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), which offers around $ 10.5 million to the Brooklyn Museum. These city subsidies cover around 20% of the museum’s operational budget, including approximately 50% of the DC 37 salaries in roles, including security, maintenance and collection care, where the museum is responsible for the rest.
De la Rosa asked Cumbo or DCLA from recipients’ institutions to provide financial unforeseen plans to prevent reductions from employees.
“DCLA expects all voters to adhere to all applicable laws in this respect,” Cumbo replied. “The city is proud to support institutions that choose to work with strong, organized trade unions and to determine a minimal basic rate through their own negotiations.”
De la Rosa repeated her question: “I understand that, but do you all need emergency plans when we are about to consider dismissals?”
“We have no requirement for emergency plan,” Cumbo replied.
“What about requiring institutions that receive city financing to follow specific labor standards or to negotiate good wedding negotiations with trade unions before they implement dismissal?” De la Rosa asked.
“We require that all groups follow all applicable federal, national and local legislation,” said Cumbo.
Cumbo emphasized a decrease in private and business contributions and spoke to defend the leadership of the Brooklyn Museum that said that she “gave priority to the long -term health of the institution.”
Both trade unions, however, have expressed frustration about the failure of the museum to explore alternatives such as leave or buyouts. Hyperallergic Reported on the expected redundancies on 6 February and the cutbacks were confirmed during an all-Staff meeting in the museum the next day. The trade unions said they only received a notice period for a few days before the decision was announced.
In a statement to Hyperallergic This week the museum claimed that it meets the 30 -day cancellation period because the dismissals will be in force on March 9. But in a letter of 28 February from museum director Anne Pasternak on the La Rosa, of which copies were provided by a museum representative during today’s hearing, Pasternak characterized the dismissal as “ignorant.”
Neither Pasternak nor other members of the senior leadership of the Brooklyn Museum were present during the hearing.
In response to HyperallergicThe request for comments, a spokesperson said in an e -mail that the Brooklyn Museum continues to negotiate with the trade unions with regard to conditions such as severance pay for dismissal employees and the exact list of positions to be cut.
“As we have indicated, the museum investigated all meaningful options before we turn to dismissed. Leave not to tackle the structural shortage. This step – no matter how difficult it is – is necessary if we balance the scales and the budget again, “said the spokesperson.
“There is no reason why 47 people would lose their jobs until we exhaust all the possible, and we commit our trade union and our brothers and sisters in other trade unions to fight because those employees do not earn less,” said DC 37 executive director Henry A. Garrido in his witness.
Garrido remembered that in 2016 the Brooklyn Museum took alternative measures, such as voluntary leave, instead of leaving employees in the Lurch.
“It seems to me that all options are not exhausted,” agreed councilor De la Rosa. “I repeat what my colleagues said here: fired are absolutely, the absolute, last resort must be.”
Garrido also doubted the timing of the cutbacks, since the budget process of the city ends in June. “Why not wait to see what we could have done?” he asked. “If we had a way to reduce that $ 10 million [deficit] For example, to say $ 6 million, then you might not have to fire 47 people, maybe you could have brought it back to 20. And then we could have tried to find out how to go from 20 to zero. “
The committee discussed alternative financing strategies to help relieve the deficit, such as charging programming such as the popular first Saturday event of the museum, which was paused for two months as part of the cost -saving plan of Pasternak. (Cumbo prevented earning the event “The dynamics would change” of the museum, which maintains a pay-what-you-wish policy for all visitors.) District 5 councilor Julie Menin also suggested taking advantage of the new York City Tourism and Conventions to Pay Marketing Spanningen ” Layoffs could bring.
Both trade unions argued that the museum ignored contract provisions such as seniority, claiming that the institution chose strategically to reduce employees with the intention of weakening the power of the trade union.
“It is not only that they take people, which is bad enough, but they have used it in a targeted way, armed this in a targeted way,” said Maida Rosenstein, organizing director for Local 2110.
“Our trade union chairman has been fired, a curator in the museum that has been around for years and who is located in the middle of a large the accession project,” said Rosenstein, referring to Liz St. George, an assistant curator on the Decorative Arts Department, who also testified today. “This makes no sense, except in the context of trade union busting.”
A spokesperson for the Brooklyn Museum said that “it does not agree with this statement in the strongest terms.”
Local 2110 and Local 1520 have sued National Labor Relations Board against the museum.
During the All-Staff meeting of 7 February, Pasternak announced that the museum would also implement recruitment, programming reductions and salary reductions from 10% to 20% for senior employees to tackle a “significant cash flow problem”. However, the dismissals would be necessary because salaries make up 70% of the museum’s operational budget, she said.
In her letter to De la Rosa, Pasternak partially attributes the financial deficit of the museum to the fact that the city does not keep pairing with the financing of DC 37 salaries, which means that the museum has to cover a much larger share. “Baseline financing, Pasternak wrote, continues to stagnate about” about the same amount it was in 2015 “despite increasing inflation.
In the meantime, the trade unions emphasized that although city support is considerable, the current financial image is largely a result of ‘own tax mismanagement’.
“The museum spent millions of dollars in consultants in ‘Rebranding’, hiring external consultants and creating very well -paid management positions,” said Rosenstein.
In his written testimony, Garrido accused the museum of ‘laying the burden of this financial shortage on the back of [workers]’Of whom some of whom only earn $ 30,000 a year.
“This is what we know: the annual reimbursement of the director of the Brooklyn Museum, north of $ 1 million, exceeds the combined salary of all 19 of our members who lose their job,” said Garrido.
In 2023, Pasternak earned a salary of $ 1,012,633, according to the most recent public archives, including payments that were postponed during the pandemic. Her current salary is $ 715,000, the museum said Hyperallergic In an e -mail.
“If everyone in the museum who earned more than a quarter of a million dollars a year would take an unpaid leave of a week, we could save jobs,” said Garrido.
