MASS MOCA strike ends

New contract ups wages, improves conditions for workers

Unionized workers at MASS MOCA reached a contract agreement with the contemporary art museum in North Adams, Mass., late Tuesday night, bringing an end to a 20-day strike.

“Today, our members voted to ratify a wage agreement that raises minimums and improves working conditions,” said the MASS MOCA union in a statement Tuesday night. “We are pleased to end our threeweek strike and to return to work tomorrow!”

The MASS MOCA union, which is part of Local 2110 UAW, began striking on March 6, following five months of failed contract negotiations for adjustments to wages. This marked the second time the union went on strike since its formation in April 2021.

“Equity and wage increases for MASS MOCA’S staff have never been a matter of if, but a matter of how fast,” said Kristy Edmunds, director of MASS MOCA, in a statement.

Per the new contract, the minimum pay for hourly workers will increase to $18; previously, over half the unionized staff was receiving $16.25 per hour.

Salaried, full-time staff will see a minimum of a 3.5 percent pay increase this year and again in 2025. Some will also be eligible for salary increases as high as 14.29 percent based on seniority and roles. The new wages go into effect within 30 days, retroactive to the beginning of this year, according to an official statement issued by the museum. Previously, the average salary for union workers was $43,600, which was almost $4,000 less than the Economic Policy Institute’s cost of living estimate for a one-person household in Berkshire County.

The contract also established new

pay structures for overtime and holidays.

The wage increases will not “come at the expense of our commitments to artists, or to the role MASS MOCA plays in the creative economy,” Edmunds continued in her statement, calling the new contract, which covers the next two years of wages, a “watershed moment” in the museum’s history.

Staff returned to work March 27. Upcoming festivals, including Wilco’s Solid Sound, and programming will be unaffected, though the museum is implementing updated hours. For the month of April, MASS MOCA will be closed on Wednesdays, and the museum’s hours of operation, which typically expand in the summer, will remain 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. indefinitely.