Why New York’s Tenement Museum Workers Decided to Unionize
The Tenement Museum tells stories of life and labor on New York's Lower East Side. But it's not just garment workers from a century ago who needed unions — the museum workers themselves recently decided they did, too.
The Tenement Museum on Orchard Street, New York City. Wikimedia Commons
Last month, Jacobin editor Micah Uetricht, Jacobin contributor Miles Kampf-Lassin, and I were walking in New York City’s Lower East Side when we decided to pop into the gift shop of the Tenement Museum. We were leafing through books about life in New York’s immigrant worker housing at the turn of the twentieth century when Micah noticed that some of the employees were zipping around the shop, whispering animatedly to one another.
We thought nothing of it until we exited the building, at which point Miles spotted a group on the sidewalk sporting union buttons and big smiles. By some kind of serendipity, workers at the Tenement Museum just moments before had voted to join United Auto Worker (UAW) Local 2110.
Last week, I spoke to Nicole Daniels and Laureen Fredella, who work as museum educators, and Jackie Wait, who works in advanced sales, about what it was like to organize their workplace.
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