Employees of North Adams, Massachusetts art museum MASS MoCA have decisively voted to unionize.
Earlier this spring, the staff of the contemporary art museum made their intent to unionize public.
“There was a lot of feeling for many years that we felt underpaid, undervalued, overworked. And then last year, the COVID related layoffs really laid bare the ways that we aren’t protected and the ways that we feel that we should be, staff spokesperson and Associate Director of Education Amanda Tobin told WAMC in March. “I was one of the folks laid off. And then when I was rehired in May, we all just started talking again about, you know, this seems like the moment to actually try and make this happen. Because it s been happening all across the country, and it s sort of now or never. When else would it would it work, you know? So we started having those conversations over the summer right around when the museum opened back up to the public.”