“Believe Women” and “Fair Pay” Projected on Whitney Facade Ahead of Strike Deadline

On Sunday evening, unionized workers at the Whitney Museum of American Art ratified their contract ahead of their strike deadline which would have disrupted the opening of their major Roy Lichtenstein retrospective set to open this week to VIPs, donors, and press October, 8-10, and to the general public on October 11. The new agreement will increase wages for all, with at least 14.75% over four years and some workers in lower-paid positions will get additional raises, ranging from five to twenty-three percent in the first year of the contract, and increased minimum rates for newly hired staff.

It has been a tumultuous week where human rights have been hotly debated at dinner tables and in both social and mainstream media in the United States. On Saturday, activist artist Michele Pred used the Whitney facade as a platform to bring questions of civic participation, voting, free speech, paying Whitney workers fairly, and the rape at Cornell University into one conversation. Cultbytes asked the artist how these topics were related: “To me, these aren’t separate issues. They all ask the same thing: whose voice, whose labor, and whose body counts?” Some of the phrases in her guerrilla-style, i.e. unsanctioned, light interventions included: “I am Jane Doe,” “Freedom of the Press Is a Human Right,” “We the People Vote,” and a message supporting the Whitney’s unionized workers. Pred has long championed voting, abortion rights, and human rights by organizing colorful marches and other public interventions. This projection is part of Fall of Freedom a nationwide weekend of artists using their work to defend democracy.

The Whitney ratified agreement includes, as a first, longevity bonuses for staff with ten years of service, strengthened health and safety provisions, increased bereavement leave, and paid child care leave of up to twelve weeks. The childcare leave is more than New York State law, which mandates private employers to offer up to 12 weeks of partially paid childcare leave (Whitney will offer full pay). The leading U.S. cultural institution in childcare leave policy is MOCA which offers up to 28 weeks leave for mothers and up to 12 weeks for fathers. As per California law, the museum does not stand for this cost, instead employees apply to have their wages partially or fully reimbursed through state-sponsored programs. In comparison with the tech industry, Bloomberg LP provides employees with up to 26 weeks of fully paid, gender-neutral primary-caregiver parental leave, alongside child care assistance programs, subsidies, and backup care while Meta offers 16 weeks of fully paid maternity and paternity leave for new parents. Many museums in Europe offer year-long leaves for parents.

Last week, American Folk Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and Guggenheim Museum, who were also on a strike deadline, and last month Jewish Museum, also ratified new contracts. In 2025, Brooklyn Museum announced a lay off of more than 47 union and non-union workers, cut salaries of up to 20% for senior leadership, and a plan to organize fewer exhibitions to tackle their $10M cash deficit. Cost-saving measures do not always need to affect wages and benefits for the lowest earners.

“This contract was hard fought,” says Katie Fong, a curatorial assistant who was part of the Union’s Bargaining Committee at the Whitney. “I’m particularly proud that we’ve made significant gains for some of the lowest-compensated museum staff, especially front of house, facilities and curatorial staff.” “Solidarity across all ranks of our union made a huge difference at the end,” says Erika Wentworth, who is a graphic designer at the museum. “The Museum knew we were serious about striking, and in these last few days, we made a lot of progress.”

Negotiations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New Museum, and the Noguchi Museum, also part of Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers, are ongoing.

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