The SAM Board of Trustees and Jon Shirley refuse to speak with the frontline workers at SAM. Why?
How are workers supposed to improve the museum from within, if the decisionmakers refuse to meet with them?
After exhausting SAM’s escalation protocol, the workers have no choice but to inform the Board of Trustees
On Thursday, October 3rd, SAM VSOs met with new CEO Scott Stulen to connect, inform him of the history of the union, and emphasize our continued motivation. In that meeting, we asked Scott to deliver a request to meet with Jon Shirley, a prominent SAM Board Member.
As a collective, VSOs need to meet in-person with Mr. Shirley and the Board of Trustees to share their lived experience that the wages and benefits the board has deemed appropriate are not sufficient for them to survive in Seattle.
Mr. Shirley chose not to respond to the workers who diligently protect his Calder exhibit day after day. Instead, the Board of Trustees sent a generic union-busting letter (more details to come!)
To understand how decisions are made at the Seattle Art Museum, one must familiarize themselves with the SAM Board of Trustees. Nearly all decisions at SAM happen at the command and approval of the board of trustees. Since SAM is a public institution, one may assume the Board are elected and operate in an open and democratic fashion.
This is not the case. Instead, the SAM Board makes decisions that impact our lives in meetings that are closed to the public and frontline employees.
The Board of this public nonprofit institution being primarily made up of wealthy millionaires (Seattle’s 1%) didn’t happen by accident; it’s by design. It is common practice for nonprofit boards to seek out board members that embody the “qualities” of:
Wisdom, Wealth, and Work.
(Philanthropy Daily; May 2019)
The museum’s community accessibility was negatively impacted by the Board signing off on the end of free admission in 2022. Museum workers opposed this change, but the board did not listen. Ticket costs at SAM are now amongst the highest in the country, with entry to the downtown museum costing over $30.
Those who affect change at the SAM lack understanding of what normal working people of Seattle want and need. Their disproportionate wealth and privilege do not match the community they serve, and the SAM workers have a vision for a museum that serves Seattle.
This is well evidenced by comparing the Board’s priorities, with Workers’ realities.
THE SAM BOARD’s PRIORITIES
-From calder.site.seattleartmuseum.org/the-collection
“Jon Shirley served as chairman of the Board of Trustees from 2000 to 2008. Mr. Shirley and his late wife Mary provided the founding gift that led to the creation of the museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park in 2007, a nine-acre park that is now Seattle’s largest greenspace.”
VS. THE WORKER’S REALITIES
During the period of Shirley’s Board of Trustees leadership, SAM workers were dealt a blow they never recovered from. Around 2006, SAM workers had their pension program ended by the board of trustees. For years before this, SAM workers had a great pension benefit that allowed workers to retire with dignity, instead of requiring individuals to continue working into their 70s and 80s. The board prioritized their personal projects over workers, and the benefit never returned. In fact, the continued chipping away of workers' current (much worse) retirement benefits remains a major battle for the VSO union.
COMMUNITY SPACES SHOULD REFLECT THE VOICES OF THE COMMUNITY
SAM workers know that we cannot keep doing the same thing and hoping for different results. For years, SAM workers waited for their turn, politely utilizing an ineffective conflict escalation protocol and HR to ask for what we need to survive. We have continued escalating hoping someone will hear us out, hoping for the Board will have a change of heart. After studying the history of SAM, it is clear that the Board of Trustees have not spontaneously decided to value their workers more, or build a public institution that reflects the genuine interests and needs of the Seattle community.
THE WORKERS CAN SAVE THE SEATTLE ART MUSEUM
It has been only through union workplace actions that we have gained greater transparency, benefits, and protections at the Seattle Art Museum.
We need your support.
To support our cause head to: https://www.samvsounion.org/how-to-support-us