North Adams — Late on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, MASS MoCA reached a contract agreement with the United Auto Workers Union Local 2110, bringing an end to wage
negotiations that began October 1, 2023. The proposal was negotiated on Sunday, with museum Director Kristy Edmunds and Deputy Director Tracy Moore leading talks with union representatives, and was ratified by union members with a vote on Tuesday afternoon. The agreement comes after eight collective bargaining sessions focused solely on employee wages.
MASS MoCA’s agreement with the United Auto Workers Local 2110 includes a minimum hourly wage of $18.00, a base-building 3.5 percent salary increase in Year 1 or equity increases ranging from 3.9 percent to 14.29 percent, and a guaranteed base-building 3.5 percent salary increase in Year 2 which allows for a longer arc of confidence to inform MASS MoCA’s budget and operational plans. The new wages go into effect within 30 days, retroactive to January 1, 2024.
“Equity and wage increases for MASS MoCA’s staff have never been a matter of if, but a matter of how fast,” said Edmunds. “The agreement marks another bold precedent that both the union and MASS MoCA desired and worked together to achieve – MASS MoCA’s minimum wage will jump to $18/hour in addition to numerous wage and equity increases. Our goal was shared, but our constraints and communication efforts for getting there differed. In our last bargaining session on Sunday, there was authentic, productive cooperation and clarity, which enabled all parties to agree.”
Edmunds continued, “All of our jobs at MASS MoCA are interdependent with artists who make and share their work, and need resources, people and organizations that can dream at the pace of extraordinary ideas. Our increases of compounding wages did not come at the expense of our commitments to artists, or to the role MASS MoCA plays in the creative economy. We ensured that everyone moves forward, rather than back, in what will be remembered as a watershed moment in MASS MoCA history.”
MASS MoCA will continue to uphold its mission and community while managing financial risk in an uncertain economic and politically charged year ahead. Beginning April 3, 2024 the museum will reduce its six-day per week operating schedule to five by closing on Wednesdays through April 30. The museum will resume being open on Wednesdays starting May 1, 2024. MASS MoCA’s hours of operation will also remain 10:00 am to 5:00 pm indefinitely.
Festivals including Wilco’s Solid Sound, Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend, and FreshGrass—which are co-produced with independent organizations and artists — are continuing as scheduled, as will the free Summer Chalet season.
Edmunds added, “I want to acknowledge Mayor Macksey, elected officials and the surrounding businesses of North Adams, including those on our campus who have also felt the impact of the strike. As we welcome our team back, I want to thank everyone who has worked to keep MASS MoCA open, as well as those who helped and supported us throughout the strike.
”MASS MoCA is widely recognized as a valued resource, an immersive center for the visual and performing arts, a destination for visitors, an anchor for the North Adams community, and an economic engine for the region. MoCA increases local economic output by almost $51 million* and employment opportunities are significantly enhanced by MASS MoCA’s presence in the region. (*Source: “The Economic Impact of MASS MoCA in 2017”, Study by the Center for Creative Community Development,
Williams College, 9/2017)
About MASS MoCA
In May 2024, MASS MoCA will celebrate its 25th Anniversary under its new Director, Kristy Edmunds, not only as a contemporary art museum and performing arts venue, but also as a creative campus with a regional, national and global impact. MASS MoCA is one of the world’s liveliest centers for making and enjoying today’s most evocative art. With vast galleries and a stunning collection of indoor and outdoor performing arts venues, MASS MoCA is able to embrace all forms of art: music, sculpture, dance, film, painting, photography, theater, and new, boundary-crossing works of art that defy easy classification.
From its beginnings as the major textile mill Arnold Print Works in the mid-19th century, to its days as the Sprague Electric Company in the mid-20th century, to its current iteration as a globally renowned contemporary art museum and fabrication center, the 16-acre MASS MoCA campus has a rich history of serving as the economic engine of the city of North Adams and the surrounding region. More information about MASS MoCA is available at www.massmoca.org or on Instagram @massmoca.
