In this section, we examine the characteristics of all private nonprofit art museum unions
in our dataset. For information on the public and university art museum unions, please visit the
spotlight.
A union is defined as a group of workers who join together to collectively
bargain for a shared contract. Since the terms union,
unit, and
local,
can be defined and applied differently depending on context—and may often be used
interchangeably in everyday conversation despite nuanced legal differences—we chose
to distinguish unions by separate contracts, even if that differs from how the union in
question would describe itself.8
We are actively seeking more information about any union that predates 2019. Please fill
out the COMMENT button to contribute.
Institutional Overview
Regional Distribution9
of Unionized Private Nonprofit Art Museums
There are private nonprofit art museums with unions in every region in the country:
Mid-Atlantic (X%),
Western (X%),
Midwest (X%),
New England (X%),
Mountain Plains (X%),
and Southeast (X%).
However, union density does not always reflect the density of museums in a region.
For example, the Mid-Atlantic accounts for only 16% of all private nonprofit art museums in the
US overall but accounts for X% of the sector’s unions%.10
This discrepancy between the regional densities of museums versus unionized museums opens up questions
around other possible explanations, such as regional differences in labor laws.
Operating Budgets of Unionized Private Nonprofit Art Museums
X%
of private nonprofit art museums with unions have annual operating budgets
of more than $20 million. This statistic is particularly notable in the context of an oft-repeated fear:
can the museum afford to have a union?11
Number of Separate Union Contracts at Private Nonprofit Art Museums
Bargaining units often only reflect some of the workers within an art museum. In some cases, there may be more
than one union representing different workers within the same museum. X%
of private nonprofit art museums have more than one union representing workers.
Union overview
Union Sizes in Private Nonprofit Art Museums
We collected the bargaining unit
size (number of members that a union represents) from a variety of sources including the
union’s self-reported data, the National Labor Relations Board,
Human Resources’ or management’s records, and news articles. Please note that these reports sometimes vary significantly,
and the size of a bargaining unit often shifts over time as museums grow, downsize, and/or reorganize their staff.
Based on our best estimates, the percentage of art museum unions within each bargaining unit size is as follows:
less than 20 members (X%),
20–50 members (X%),
51–100 members (X%),
101–200 members (X%),
and more than 200 members (X%).
Parent Union Affiliation of Unions in Private Nonprofit Art Museums
Parent unions United Auto Workers (UAW) 2110 and
the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME) represent
X%
of unionized workers at private nonprofit art museums, but there are many unions who have sought
representation elsewhere or have gone independent. (See parent union
and parent union acronyms
in the Glossary of Terms for more.)
Positions Represented by Private Nonprofit Art Museum Unions
X% of the private nonprofit art
museum unions represent workers in the building operations
department area.12
This is unsurprising given the longstanding nature of many of the unions representing building operations staff, compared to those in the Administration
(X%), Collections
(X%), Communications
(X%), and Public Engagement
(X%) department areas.
Visit the Unions Index and filter by Unit Composition
to view which units represent workers from specific department areas.
