Newest workers group: No aims for union

Organized as Reunion, it says it has many of the same goals as another labor organization

A group of workers has organized under the name Reunion for Meow Wolf, apparently hoping to solve labor issues at the Santa Fe-based arts collective without forming a union.

They counter the Sept. 3 announcement of the formation of the Meow Wolf Workers Collaborative, which continues to seek voluntary acceptance from Meow Wolf management as a union that intends to become a unit with the Communications Workers of America.

Labor issues are simmering at the popular arts collective, with the union group seeking guarantees for pay, safety, hours, health care, paid time off and protections from outsourcing and layoffs.

Meow Wolf on Sept. 14 brought on Erin Hirsch as its “chief people officer,” charged with leading a strategy to build and retain a team in a productive and healthy workplace, it said. Meow Wolf

said it wants to address diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and work toward an equitable future.

The two worker groups are less confident. “We completely agree with many of the issues the union has raised,” Reunion states on its website. “However … we feel strongly that [the union] is not the right approach.”

Meow Wolf did not make Hirsch available for an interview. But Meow Wolf ’s three co-CEOs — Ali Rubinstein, Carl Christensen and Jim Ward — issued a joint email response to the formation of a union and Reunion.

“While we recognize and respect our employees’ rights to organize, we also support the open dialogue towards strengthening our company,” the statement said. “Over the past few weeks, our employees have been holding vigorous discussions to question and understand the issues at hand. This is the Meow Wolf way.

“We have encouraged all of our employees to thoroughly educate themselves on what the future of our company could look like, with and without a union. The most important part of Meow Wolf, above all else, is the people — and we want to continue working together to find new solutions for the future.”

Reunion for Meow Wolf has 14 signatories on its website, while the Meow Wolf Workers Collective website has 49. Meow Wolf currently has about 250 employees after laying off 201 employees and furloughing 58 in April after the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.

Reunion for Meow Wolf consented Friday to answer questions from The New Mexican but had not responded by Monday afternoon. The Meow Wolf Workers Collective also did not respond for comment about the formation of Reunion.

Not more than five years ago, Meow Wolf was a scrappy collective of anti-establishment artists that staged some temporary large-scale, interactive exhibitions in Santa Fe before gaining instant international acclaim for its House of

Eternal Return on Rufina Circle that opened in March 2016.

It swiftly transitioned into a multimillion-dollar business with more than 400 employees. Less than two years later, in January 2018, Meow Wolf announced its expansions to Denver and Las Vegas, Nev. Two more expansions were announced in 2019 to Washington, D.C., and Phoenix.

“The organizing efforts of the union have already impeded our ability to speak our truth with people at many levels of the company,” Reunion wrote on its website. “If the union forms, we will no longer be able to speak with our supervisors if we’d like to request a change in compensation. … This does not create the kind of freedom of expression or choice that makes Meow Wolf what it is.”

Reunion indicated it wants to work with management.

“If A is the way Meow Wolf is being run now and B is the union, we propose that C is a middle road between those two options, a Reunion calling us to truly come together as a collective of all workers at Meow Wolf to collaboratively build a brighter day,” Reunion states. “Let’s work with the people we already have on board to complete work that has already been initiated by the company before starting a new effort that will drastically change how we work and communicate with each other.”

The union push alienates Meow Wolf employees who are not involved with the workers’ collective, which is about half the employees, Reunion asserts.

“MWWC has not created enough opportunity for true discourse prior to this decision and many of us lack faith that MWWC will hear our feedback or represent our needs any better than Meow Wolf leadership does currently,” Reunion states.

Reunion at Meow Wolf members believe its group can achieve similar things without the formality of a union.

“We could request that Meow Wolf willingly enter into a contract with employees or make changes to our employee handbook to address the issues being so rightly raised by MWWC,” Reunion states. “We could have dialogue across the company on what it means to have addressed those needs in a satisfactory way. We could collectively request that management make changes to things like wage disparity among teams and how our employee handbook is updated.”

If A is the way Meow Wolf is being run now and B is the union, we propose that C is a middle road between those two options, a Reunion.” Statement from Reunion for Meow Wolf