Workers from museums from around the Bay Area — including Cal Academy of Sciences, Asian Art Museum, Exploratorium, de Young, Legion of Honor, SFMOMA, Oakland Museum of California, and Bay Area Discovery Museum — dressed for dinner and gathered outside the California Association of Museums Conference ahead of its Director’s Dinner on Wednesday, February 19. They are not directors and were not invited to the dinner — but they are nonetheless demanding their place at the proverbial table as partners.

They marched, chanted, and clanged pots and pans. They delivered a set of three demands to directors inside: Fair contracts now! Work with us, not against us! Livable wages!

Part of a nationwide wave of museum union organizing, these workers — members of three different unions — are united in their commitment to and concern about the missions and futures of their institutions. Whether arts, science, or history, Bay Area museums are facing challenges on every front: reduced attendance since the pandemic, reductions in philanthropic donations, and now the freezing of federal funding, including grants. As federal cuts trickle down to the state and city governments, it will take a huge effort to preserve these institutions not just for today but for generations to come. 

“Our cultural institutions, whether they be in the arts, sciences, or education, are under attack by the Trump administration because they are part of the fabric of democratic culture. We’ve always seen our society struggle with commitment to democratic funding for cultural institutions – tight budgets often put arts and culture on the chopping block first,” said Ian Hart, an exhibits preparator at the California Academy of Sciences.

“We love what we do. We work in museums because we believe in their missions and values. And most importantly because we believe in serving the public. We want to make sure our museums are here for the next generation and the one after that, and that they are there for everyone in our communities. We are critical to making that happen. We want our directors to acknowledge that and work with us and really tap into our experience and knowledge to defend our institutions and deepen democracy instead of fighting us or treating us as disposable.”

Yet instead of treating their staff as partners, too often museum leaders have been perpetuating the systemic inequality endemic to corporate America: top-down management that operates with little transparency, boards that appear to engage in self-dealing, executives paying themselves excessive salaries and awarding themselves huge raises and bonuses even as they tell line staff that budgets are bleak.

“We realize it’s tough for museums, but so much money is going to the top of the ship that for the lowest-paid workers to earn so little, there’s an equity issue,” Steven Sciscenti, an SEIU 1021 shop steward who works as a conservation technician at the Asian Art Museum, told the San Francisco Standard.

The different museums’ staff are in different phases of organizing: Cal Academy workers are still fighting for a first contract after winning their union in July of 2023; Oakland Museum of California’s union, part of AFSCME Council 57, was voluntarily recognized by management last March and is also still negotiating a first contract. Bay Area Discovery Museum workers won voluntary recognition of their union with SEIU 1021 the day before Wednesday’s action. Exploratorium workers ratified a new contract late last year; Asian Art Museum workers will start negotiations for a new contract in the coming months. Despite having different immediate demands for their employers, they see their long-term goals as very much aligned.

They have been collaborating together as the Museum Workers’ Committee for several months. This was their first public action, but they do not plan it to be their last. 

Read more about the action and the workers’ issues in the SF Standard here.

Watch the KRON 4 coverage of their action here.

Watch a video of the action here.