Tag: Penn Museum Workers United

By Posted on Posted in Events

Penn Museum Workers United need your support in their contract negotiations, so they are holding a Rally for Fair Pay on Thursday, June 8th starting at 5:30pm outside the main entrance to the Penn Museum. All are welcome!

AAUP–Penn members as well as friends in other campus and local unions are urged to attend and help send a clear message to Museum management and to Penn that the whole community is watching and it is time to negotiate a fair contract now. All of us who work at this University have an interest in seeing all Penn employees paid enough to live securely in Philly, and in seeing the Museum keep the talented staff whose work it relies on every day.

You can read AAUP–Penn’s letter of support for PMWU here, calling on President Magill, Director Chris Woods, and museum management to accept their reasonable wage proposals. Come show up for our museum worker colleagues and stand in solidarity with PMWU this Thursday afternoon!

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By Posted on Posted in News, Statements

Our friends and colleagues in Penn Museum Workers United (AFSCME DC47 Local 397) are currently negotiating their first contract. They have waited long enough to do so (having organized in May 2021 and endured a relentless anti-union campaign), and there is a lot at stake: above all, wages that would allow them to live in dignity in Philadelphia. A third of PMWU members earn between $15.75 and $20 per hour; they are underpaid compared with their counterparts at other museums, as well as with Penn library workers who perform similar types of work and with Penn housekeeping workers in Teamsters Local 115. If the Museum can afford to spend $100 million on capital projects, it seems clear that it can also afford to pay its workers fairly. In fact, we believe that it can’t afford not to do so. It is in the interest of the institution to retain talented staff and prevent the high rates of turnover and instability that currently result from inadequate pay.

On June 4th, AAUP–Penn’s Executive Committee sent a letter to Penn President Liz Magill, Penn Museum Director Chris Woods, and Penn Museum Chief Operating Officer Genny Boccardo-Dubey calling on Museum management to accept the reasonable wage proposals of our colleagues in PMWU. You can read our letter below.

We stand in solidarity with Penn Museum workers, and we are committed to seeing that the University and the Museum meet their demands and negotiate a fair contract.

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By Posted on Posted in News

AAUP–Penn warmly congratulates our friends in Penn Museum Workers United on winning their NLRB election and gaining certification for their union in August 2021. Non-professional Museum employees in PMWU voted in favor of joining AFSCME District Council 47, together with the recently formed Philadelphia Museum of Art Union in the Museum and Cultural Workers Local 397. We wish them all the best!

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