Brooklyn Museum and Whitney unions vote for strike action
Staff unions at the Brooklyn Museum in New York and the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan have voted for strike action.
The two votes were reported together on 15 September 2026 ARTnews. A vote of this kind, often called a strike authorisation, gives union leaders permission to call a walkout. It is not a walkout itself.
It puts the option on the table. Museums typically stay open during this stage. Hours and tickets change only if a museum announces it.
The Brooklyn result has a longer history. Workers there voted 68 to 3 in August 2021 to form a union represented by Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW), a US labour union that also represents museum and cultural workers The Art Newspaper. Two years later, members of that same local voted overwhelmingly to ratify their first union contract UAW. A contract, in this context, is the written agreement on pay and working conditions.
Before that first contract was settled, the Brooklyn union had set a strike deadline for Wednesday, 8 November 2023 UAW. The planned action was to take place in front of the museum at 200 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. Deadlines of this sort are commonly used to press for a deal before any stoppage.
Other New York museums have taken similar steps. Staff at the American Folk Art Museum in Manhattan were scheduled in May 2024 to vote on whether to unionise with the same Local 2110 UAW. At the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, the union voted to authorise a strike in a ballot reported on 30 June 2026 Hyperallergic.
For visitors, this means watch this space. Nothing in the latest reporting says galleries have closed. Anyone with tickets should check with the museum before travelling.
