Art museum and workers in dispute over scheduled pay raises

Less than a year after a bitter, nearly three-week long strike, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and its workers are once again locked in a dispute — this time over a raise that was due to go into effect Saturday.

The raises were part of the contract agreement that ended the 2022 strike.

“It’s really a punch in the gut for a lot of folks,” said Adam Rizzo, president of the PMA union, an affiliate of AFSCME DC47.

The disagreement involves a differing interpretation in contract language about longevity pay increase between the union and their managers, which became clear in a meeting between the parties on Wednesday, according to Rizzo.

Maggie Fairs, spokesperson for the museum, said the union is trying to apply different contractual language than what museum management ultimately agreed to after years of negotiation.

She called it “perplexing and unfortunate” and accused the union of attempting to “reopen negotiations unilaterally.”

According to both sides, the contract calls for employees who work 25 hours or more a week to get a $500 annual longevity raise if they have had 5, 10, 15, or 20 years of service on July 1, 2023. Employees who work less than 25 hours get a $250 raise.

Rizzo said the union believes that workers who have reached any of those anniversaries by Saturday should receive the raises.

The museum’s position is that the raises will be paid only to employees who reach those specific work anniversaries during the three-year contract period.

“If you hit your five-year anniversary next week, you’ll get $500, but if you’ve been working here for 11 years, you’ll get nothing,” Rizzo said. “It basically means only a handful of folks who work at the museum in the bargaining unit are going to receive anything at all.”

Fairs said the longevity increases will recognize employees on their anniversary dates for their service.

“Their contributions to the museum are deeply felt and honoring them in this way was the goal when we reached agreement on the longevity terms,” she said.

The union, which represents about 190 workers, has filed a grievance. It has also started a petition protesting the contract interpretation.

Rizzo said that the union legally cannot strike but that it may consider taking other actions if progress isn’t made.

The workers’ strike last fall coincided with museum director Sasha Suda’s start on the job. During the nearly three-week walkout and picket, many workers complained about her absence through the labor dispute.

When an agreement was reached, Suda spoke about reconciliation.

Rizzo said that staff meetings have taken place but that this new development may harm progress made.

“What’s so troubling about this, is [that] ... the strike was really challenging for the institution and for the workers within the institution as a whole,” he said.

“Sasha Suda has been talking a lot about healing and building equity into the institution. And then here we are with Sasha telling us they are going to put the longevity clause into effect in such a way that it creates more inequities.”

In the workers’ contract, they received salary increase, four weeks of paid parental leave, and lowered-cost health-care benefits.

The museum recently increased general admission ticket prices from $25 to $30.