By David Lance,
AFRO MDDC Intern
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott stands in solidarity with the employees of Walters Art Museum in their efforts to unionize with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 67. A majority of the staff at the Walters Art Museum have expressed their desires to form a union, their group is called “Walters Workers United.”
“We are the Walters Art Museum. We engage and strengthen our community by collecting, preserving and interpreting art,” they said. “We are forming our union to care for our most valuable assets — the people who work here and the communities we serve.”
Mayor Scott released a statement on June 21 showing his support for Walters Workers United. “I want to express my support for all the employees at the Walters Art Museum in their efforts to form the union, Walters Workers United, with AFSCME Council 67. All the employees at the Walters are invaluable assets to the museum, its work and the City of Baltimore,” said Scott.
I support Walters Workers United in their demand for a neutral third-party election agreement similar to the election agreement recently signed by the Baltimore Museum of Art and the AFSCME,” Scott continued. “The Walters is ultimately an agency of the City of Baltimore. It is supported by public funding and, as such, has a responsibility to abide by democratic values and respect the collective will of its employees to form a single wall-to-wall union in their workplace.”
Other institutions, such as the Museum of the City of New York, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn’s Children Museum, Milwaukee Public Museum, and Milwaukee Art Museum have all gone through unionization processes and recognize all of their employees under one union. Scott urges the Walters to do the same.
“There is no reason for the Walters not to follow the path of the Baltimore Museum of Art in signing an election agreement and proceeding with an election conducted by a neutral third-party arbitrator,” Scott claimed.
To support Walters Workers United, you can sign a union card at: https://www.waltersworkersunited.org/
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