Workers at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) voted to unionize with AFSCME District Council 36, forming LACMA United. The union will represent approximately 300 employees, including curators and art handlers. The vote took place electronically after LACMA leadership declined to voluntarily recognize the union in November, opting instead for an election overseen by the American Arbitration Association and approved by the National Labor Relations Board. 96 percent of those voting supported the unionization effort.
This development is significant because it adds LACMA to a growing wave of museum unionizations across the United States, particularly in Los Angeles, where institutions like the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Academy Museum, and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County have already unionized. It also comes shortly after workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art petitioned for a bargaining unit of roughly 1,000 employees, which would create one of the largest museum unions in the country. The unionization reflects broader concerns about low wages, high turnover, and lack of transparency in major cultural institutions.