SAM VSO Union

Hi! We're the workers of the Security Department at the Seattle Art Museum, and we are forming an independent union! We work as the internal security guards (Visitor Service Officers, or VSOs) at our city’s two iconic museums; the Seattle Asian Art Museum and Seattle Art Museum. Our department is made up of working artists and creatives, and we’re organizing a union to win better lives for us all. We have been organizing our union since July of 2021, and we went public in January of 2022.

 

 

Photo by (Greg Gilbert / The Seattle Times)

 

Since we are an independent union we do not have a source of funds to help us with the numerous upfront costs associated with forming a union. We are now asking for donations to help us with: Cost of legal fees, printing expenses, with the remainder contributing to our strike & general fund.

 

Our story:

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, VSOs saw their retirement benefits cut to nothing, worked crowded private events without sufficient COVID safety regulations, and wages so low that many VSOs were pushed out of the city. We decided we can do better, and we are going to do it ourselves.

 

Thus far, SAM has not been kind to us in our drive towards unionization. Our first union election in January (in affiliation with IUPAT Local 116) was blocked by the SAM administration. The museum used a legal strategy that cited an obscure line of the NLRA that states "security departments cannot be in 'mixed-guard' unions." This left us with the museum granting us voluntary recognition as our only path to unionization. Though we had 75% majority votes "yes" in our department, the museum refused to recognize our union. This was despite CEO Amada Cruz having stated on December 17th via department-wide email "If a majority of VSOs want to be represented by a union, we will respect that decision and attempt to negotiate a contract". In the time since then, SAM has relentlessly sent misleading emails to all-staff where they attack the character and intentions of those organizing the union, claiming the union uses "disruptive activities" that hurt the museum's financial bottom line. In one particularly aggressive email Amada Cruz, CEO of the Seattle Art Museum (who makes over $400,000 a year) even called one of the organizers of the union "the definition of privilege and beyond tone deaf".

 

Our employer's aggressive anti-union actions only confirmed what we knew already knew: We desperately need a union which can effectively advocate for our own best interests. So on March 8th, 2022 a majority of VSOs turned in union authorization cards to the NLRB for the 2nd time and requested voluntary recognition from our employer.

 

Our independent union will partner with a local labor firm to provide us the legal protection we will need to counter SAM's sizable legal capacity.

 

Since we are an independent union, it is literally just the employees of the Security Department at the museum who make up the union. This means we do not have access to any finances to counter the money SAM is able to spend on a counter-campaign. Your contributions will allow us to have a chance to be the first department at the Seattle Art Museum to unionize!