More than 100 Seattle Art Museum employees announced plans this week to unionize, joining the nationwide labor movement that’s swept through art institutions in the last six years.
The union, called the Seattle Art Museum Workers United, will represent workers in over 20 front- and back-end departments. The union told SAM director and CEO Scott Stulen of its formation in a letter, writing: “Our solidarity is a movement to improve working conditions in alignment with SAM’s mission, vision, and core values.”
The letter continues, “The challenges we face as unsustainable wages, subpar health benefits, and siloed, top-down decision-making, are undeniable, systemic, and have persisted across administrations.”
The Seattle Art Museum did not respond to an ARTnews request for comment.
Details of the bargaining unit will be finalized over the coming months. Union organizers said they have a supermajority of support among eligible workers, including staff across curatorial, visitor experience, education, development, and other departments essential to the museum’s operations. Security staff, who went previously unionized as SAM VSO (short for Visitors Services Officers), an independent labor body, will not be part of the new union.
SAM VSO formed in May 2022 and, following two years of contentious negotiations, including accusations of union-busting tactics by museum leadership, finalized a contract with SAM in late 2024. At the time, security staff were seeking better retirement benefits, a seniority-based wage structure, and clearer opportunities for career advancement.
Organizers for Seattle Art Museum Workers United (SAMWU) said their top bargaining priorities include “sustainable and respectful” wages, just-cause protections, and retention incentives, as well as improved PTO, healthcare, and retirement benefits.
Speaking to ARTnews, Drew Davis, an art handler at SAM and an organizing committee member with SAMWU, outlined the group’s goals in broader terms: “We are demanding a voice in decision-making. As workers of the museum, we sit at the end of the line of every decision that impacts us.”
Davis said the he had witnessed a range of pre- and post-pandemic changes at SAM, including changes to benefits and high staff turnover. “From 2020 to 2025, I saw the slashing of benefits and the loss of tens of thousands of dollars in retirement savings for some people,” he said. “People burn out and leave to find higher-paying or more sustainable jobs.” While he said he understood the impulse to quit, he added that the resulting turnover “is a burden on everyone remaining, who are left to pick up the slack,” creating successive blows to morale.
Momentum for unionization at art museums, cultural institutions, and art schools has only grown in the wake of the pandemic, which caused numerous layoffs. These organizing drives have been united by calls for job security, better wages, and clearer paths for advancement.
According to Davis, SAMWU filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board Wednesday morning. The union is willing to withdraw the NLRB election petition, however, if SAM leadership voluntarily recognizes them before May 27. SAMWU has affiliated with the Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28, which represents several local and art institutions, including the Tacoma Art Museum.
SAM VSO, the museum’s independent security officer union, began organizing in 2021 and secured a contract after a 12-day strike. “A full-time job should provide the basic things you need to take care of yourself—housing, food, health, even mental health,” Marcela Soto-Ramirez, a SAM VSO co-representative, told ARTnews at the time of the strike.
Amid the current organizing drive, Davis added: “We want to believe in the power of art and what this institution can provide for our region. No one works at an art museum because they love money, but we deserve to live in the city that houses that museum.”
