MoMA Reaches ‘Tentative’ Contract Deal With Its Staff

The battle between MoMA management and its own staff may have reached a conclusion.

Earlier today, the Instagram feed of Local 2110—the union that represents the museum’s 280 professional employees—relayed the news via an image of Yoko Ono’s iconic “War Is Over” poster (from the museum’s current Ono retrospective) and a message indicating that a deal had been reached “in the wee hours of the morning:”

As the post indicates, exact details of the contract terms are not yet public, since employees must still vote on the proposal on Monday. The major issue had been healthcare, with management looking to weaken benefits substantially.

“I am assuming good news because they settled,” one MoMA staffer told artnet News, adding that the negotiating team hadn’t been available, likely because talks went late into the night. “It was a pretty clear mandate from members to not settle with these changes to the health plan.”

Talks have come down to the wire: The official end of the period was set for June 20. Until recently the two sides seemed to be at odds, with employees delivering an “open letter” to MoMA boss Glenn Lowry in protest of museum demands earlier this week.