After eight long weeks, workers in New York Hispanic Society Museum and Library have finished their strike and voted to approve their first collective agreement. The tough labor battle has recently led to a demonstration outside the house of Philippe de Montebello, the president of the establishment and former director of the Met Museum.
“We are delighted with this new contract,” Patrick Lenaghan, the museum’s curator of prints, photographs and sculptures, said in a statement. “It offers security that we never had before. With this, we can focus on the work that we love and have dedicated so many years to.
Hispanic society first organized in May 2021 in the middle of a wave of unionization at museums across the United States, workers have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to join Local 2110, which is part of the United Auto Workers (UAW). A few months earlier, the museum had ended its pension plan for staff members, and staff were looking to improve their benefits and salary.
After more than a year of negotiations, the union voted to strike last March, citing the museum’s refusal to continue to fully cover health care premiums. The new workers would have been responsible for 10-25% of the cost. During the strike, the museum failed to pay staff, who each received $500 from Local 2110’s strike fund, plus money from a crowdfunded “distress fund,” according to Hyperallergic.
Members of the New York Hispanic Society Museum and Library Union picketed the Upper East Side home of museum president Philippe de Montebello. Photo by Patrick Lenaghan.
In a vote on Friday, the union ratified a two-and-a-half-year contract that includes comprehensive health care benefits and establishes a new 403(b) retirement plan, in addition to raising wages by more than 18 %. (New hires earning over $85,000 will pay 5-15% of their bonuses, but the museum will still cover deductibles.)
“After months of negotiations, we are pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached that best serves the interests of our community and our staff,” museum director Guillaume Kientz wrote in an email. at Artnet News. “We are excited to move forward in a positive way that will benefit the Hispanic Society Museum and Library going forward when it officially reopens to the public on May 25.”
The strike – the longest at a museum in years – had further delayed the reopening of the museum’s main galleries, which have been closed since 2017 due to renovations at its building in Washington Heights. The turn-of-the-century Fine Arts museum complex, designed by Charles P. Huntington, has aged poorly.
“The buildings are limestone and the roofs are steel beams with glass. The three elements just aren’t happy together and the upkeep hasn’t been good,” Lenaghan told Artnet News in 2021, when opening the first collectible exhibit on site since renovations began, in a new gallery space in the basement. “And the roof is just a problem. There is also the issue of lighting and air conditioning. There are pieces of the building that still have their original 1906 electrical wiring!
Hispanic Society Museum and Library, New York. Photo courtesy of Hispanic Society Museum and Library, New York.
During the multi-year shutdown, the Hispanic Society has held traveling exhibitions of its collections, which focus on Spanish and Portuguese art. Some works would still be engaged in loans until 2026, but featured paintings like Duchess of Alba by Francois Goya returned to the museum at the Royal Academy of Arts in London last month and is due to be reinstalled in the autumn.
This week’s reopening will feature exhibits dedicated to Joaquin Sorolla—which has its own dedicated room with a monumental painting cycle commissioned by the museum for the space—and Jesus Rafael Sotocelebrating the centenary of Sorolla’s death and Soto’s birth.
A selection of works by Soto will be presented in the main courtyard of the museum, in dialogue with pieces from the collection. The Sorolla Room will also unveil a temporary fine jewelry exhibition by Spanish designer Luz Camino titled “Jewels in a Gem: Luz Camino at the Hispanic Society Museum.”
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