CHICAGO — Members of the union representing Museum of Science and Industry workers voted to authorize a strike, although it was unclear if or when a walkout would take place.

At a Tuesday morning news conference outside the Hyde Park institution, members of the union said they voted to strike because museum management has not given employees an across-the-board pay raise since 2022. Most workers at the museum make between $16.60, the city of Chicago’s minimum wage, and $20 an hour.

Around 95% of the union’s 108 members cast votes, and 90% of those members voted to authorize a strike. A majority of the union members work directly with museum visitors as guest facilitators or educators. A strike has not been scheduled yet, but the vote gives an elected six-member committee of workers the power to call a strike when they see fit.

“After two years at the bargaining table, management has refused to make a change. The workers have spoken loud and clear,” said Anders Lindall, director of public affairs for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, the union that represents the workers.

The bargaining committee and a chief negotiator from AFSCME 31, the union, will meet with museum management to discuss a contract on October 6. A spokesperson for the Museum of Science and Industry said in a statement that the museum plans to work towards a solution at this meeting.

“We are committed to engaging in dialogue with AFSCME and continue to work toward an agreeable and comprehensive resolution that supports our employees, our visitors and the sustained future of our historic Chicago institution,” the statement read.

In addition to a pay raise, the workers are advocating for eight weeks of paid parental leave and improvements to existing policies around vacations and sick days. Currently, workers are entitled to around seven sick days a year and part-time workers get one hour of sick time for every 35 hours worked, the minimum required by law under the city’s paid time off ordinance.

“Workers are regularly forced to choose between coming to work sick or being disciplined,” Colin Thesis, a representative for AFSCME Council 31 who is chief negotiator on the workers contract with museum management, said.

The museum is open everyday except Thanksgiving and Christmas, and currently part-time workers do not get holiday pay. The union is advocating for part-time employees to get paid time and a half on holidays.

Josh Garcia, a guest engagement representative at the museum, is a member of the six-person committee that bargains with management. As a child, Garcia loved learning about history and science at the museum and dreamed of working there.

“If working here is a dream, what we’re paid is a nightmare,” Garcia said at the news conference. “We want the public to know that this world class institution pays us poverty wages.”

He said many of his colleagues get paid $16.60 an hour and that he recently moved in with his grandmother in order to get by.

David Dowd, a guest engagement facilitator who is also on the bargaining committee, spoke at the news conference as well. He has worked at the museum for three years and gets paid $19 an hour. Dowd said he also works a second part-time job that pays more hourly than the museum does, to stay afloat.

“My colleagues and I work here because we love the museum and believe in its mission, but it’s not sustainable,” Dowd said, “a strike isn’t something anyone wants but we can’t get by on these wages.”

Workers at the museum formed a union under the umbrella of AFSCME 31 in July 2023. AFSCME 31 represents several museums and cultural institutions in Chicago including the Shedd Aquarium, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Field Museum and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.

The union at Museum of Science and Industry was an outlier in authorizing a strike, said Lindall, AFSCME’s public affairs director, because management at other museums such as the Art Institute and the Field Museum raised wages for workers.

At the Art Institute, the first union contract for AFSCME members settled in July 2023 raised wages between 12.25% to 16.25% across the board and increased starting pay to $18 an hour. In May this year, the first union contract for AFSCME members at the Field Museum raised wages from nearly 14% to more than 17% and included an improved retirement plan and increased compensation for workers with bilingual skills.

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