Boston's Museum of Fine Arts reaches labor deal with workers

BOSTON (AP) — Employees at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts ratified their first labor deal Tuesday, becoming the latest prestigious art institution to protect workers with a union contract.

The collective bargaining agreement is the first since museum workers voted to join the United Auto Workers Local 2110 in November 2020, the union and management said in a joint statement.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement on a union contract with the MFA that will provide a more equitable compensation structure and a democratic voice for the staff,” union President Maida Rosenstein said in the statement. “By establishing collective bargaining rights, the MFA staff is helping to bring about necessary systemic change for museum workers in general."

The union represents 227 of the museum’s administrative, technical, curatorial and conservation employees.

The agreement raises wages and minimum pay rates. Workers will receive at least a 5% increase on July 1, with some workers getting larger increases. Wages will be increased again by 3% on July 1, 2023, and again by 3% on July 1, 2024.

The Museum has estimated the total cost of the changes in wages to be 13.5% over the three-year term of the contract.

The New York-based UAW Local 2110 represents workers at dozens of cultural and educational institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Portland Museum of Art in Maine.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, museums were forced to shut down and lay off workers, and many employees realized they had few legal protections, said Tom Juravich, a professor of sociology and labor studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The Museum of Fine Arts eliminated more than 100 jobs early in the pandemic, about half through voluntary early retirements and half...