Workers at Museum of Fine Arts to strike for a day

BOSTON (AP) » Members of the union that represents about 200 workers at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts have voted to hold a one-day strike next week over stalled contract negotiations with management.

More than 96% of the union, which represents public-facing staff, library workers, educators, curators, conservators, and administrative and professional workers, voted to picket outside the museum next Wednesday, union officials told The Boston Globe for a story Thursday.

Workers are concerned about pay, safety, workplace diversity, requiring union membership and job growth, according to Eve Mayberger, a member of the union’s bargaining team.

“Management has not really engaged with most of these issues and are coming back with very mild adjustments,” said Mayberger, an assistant objects conservator.

Managers said in a statement Friday that despite the financial challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, the museum remains committed to properly paying its employees.

But the museum also said that after seven months of progress and productive dialogue, the union’s bargaining committee has gone more than seven weeks without responding to the latest proposal.

“We remain committed to staying at the bargaining table to create an equitable and sustainable outcome,” museum management said.

The museum plans to “remain open and will provide the best possible experience we can to our visitors during the one-day strike.”

Museum employees voted overwhelmingly last November to join the United Auto Workers Local 2110.