Tenement Museum and Local 1120 United Auto Workers Ratify Collective Bargaining Agreement

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Contact: Jamie Salen, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, [email protected], 646-518-3061

 

1/7/2021, New York, NY- The Tenement Museum and United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2110 have agreed on an initial, ten-month contract, which will run through October 31, 2021.

Negotiations began in August 2019 after Local 2110 began representing a group of part-time and full-time staff in the museum’s education, visitor services, and retail departments.

The new contract provides recall rights for bargaining unit members laid off in July as a result of the Museum’s protracted pandemic closure. The agreement also includes seniority rights and severance for all full-time and part-time union staff as well as a management rights clause.

“We believe in the mission of the museum and are excited to have this short-term agreement as a first step to getting our members back to work,” said Cara-Lynne Thomas, Tenement Museum Union Bargaining Committee member and Co-founder TMU Mutual Aid Fund. “We look forward to working with the museum to support our members as the museum continues its recovery.”

As part of the agreement, a joint labor-management committee will be established. The committee of union members and Tenement Museum management and executive staff will meet quarterly about issues of concern, including health and safety.

“We’re pleased to have reached his agreement,” Museum president Morris Vogel noted. “It is a powerful statement of how much we’ve always valued the contributions of our colleagues.”

 

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About the Tenement Museum

Since 1988, the Museum has forged emotional connections between visitors and immigrants past and present, through educator-led tours of its historic tenement buildings at 97 and 103 Orchard and the surrounding neighborhood, enhancing appreciation for the vital role immigrants play in shaping America’s identity. The Museum has become one of New York City’s preeminent cultural and educational institutions, welcoming more than 278,000 visitors, including 55,000 students, each year. The Museum now aims to use every medium at its disposal to dramatically increase the impact of its programming—reaching millions not thousands—with its message of how immigrants built and continue to build America.