On Wednesday morning, Seattle Art Museum (SAM) workers announced that their union, Seattle Art Museum Workers United (SAMWU), was affiliating with the Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28 (WFSE). Their unit will represent over 100 eligible SAM employees across a wide range of departments—marketing, curatorial, education, administration, development, environmental services, and more—but notably not security guards, who have established their own independent union.
Like so many workers across the cultural sector, SAMWU is fighting for higher pay, better benefits, and greater cooperation between themselves and upper management. In a letter delivered to SAM CEO Scott Stulen and the Board of Trustees, SAMWU said it wants “sustainable and respectful wages” “just-cause” protections; improved healthcare, PTO, and other employee benefits; and a workplace culture of “inclusion, trust, and accountability.”
“The challenges we face, such as unsustainable wages, subpar health benefits, and siloed, top-down decision-making, are undeniable, systemic, and have persisted across administrations,” their letter reads. “Change at the top alone will not solve our root problem.”
SAMWU said they have filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board but are giving SAM leadership until May 27 to voluntarily recognize the union. In an emailed statement to The Stranger, Stulen wrote that museum leadership were reviewing the letter.
“Our employees are one of our greatest assets and we have long supported their rights, including the rights to advocate for themselves individually and collectively,” the statement read. “We look forward to reviewing the letter and we commit to engaging in good faith in all conversations with our employees.”
Unbothered by grey skies, dribbling rain, and that stale-ass statement, SAMWU and its supporters held a rally and press conference outside the museum at 1st Ave and University. Before the press conference started, members chomped on pizza and cupcakes, handing out union t-shirts and buttons with the SAMWU logo—Jonathan Borofsky’s “Hammering Man” sculpture, mid-hammer, natch—and socialized. Representatives from SAM Visitor Service Officers (VSO) union, Tacoma Art Museum Workers United, and the Washington State Labor Council AFL-CIO all commingled.
SAMWU’s formation comes as museums in the Puget Sound region have become hot beds of labor activity. Last August, National Nordic Museum workers launched a union, citing understaffing and low wages as impetus for the organization. That same month, workers at the Tacoma Art Museum unanimously ratified their first union contract and officially joined WFSE/AFSCME, the first museum in Washington state to do so.
At SAM itself, the security guards union went on a years-long battle with SAM leadership and officially won their contract in December 2024 following an 12-day strike. SAM VSO Union member Marce Soto Ramirez, who has worked as a security guard at the museum for over five years, congratulated SAMWU members on organizing for better working conditions.
First to take the stage was Jenny Woods, an installation and design registration specialist and member of the SAMWU organizing committee. A 25-year veteran of the museum industry who’s spent the last decade of her career at SAM, Woods said staff regularly could not afford basic necessities and had to leave their positions for jobs with better pay and benefits.
“Without a staff, a museum is nothing but a warehouse,” Woods said. “Too often, museums consider staff to be dispensable, easily replaceable, whiny and—apparently —independently wealthy. If museum professionals make the museum, then it is time for museum leadership to recognize staff’s contributions and work harder to keep us here.”
After Woods, Max Seuberlich, an environmental services and events support assistant at SAM, took the mic to say that unionizing would be the best course of action to ensure job security and a higher wage tied to inflation. “I’m organizing instead of quitting because work at SAM and supporting the arts community is meaningful to me,” Seuberlich said.
Washington State Labor Council AFL-CIO President April Sims also had some choice words for SAM management.
“I’ve got one message: Do better,” said Sims. She called on management to voluntarily recognize the union. “Stop stalling and start respecting your workers’ choice.”
As the press conference wound down and the crowd began to disperse, Borofsky’s 48-foot kinetic “Hammering Man” continued to labor against the gray sky.
