Service & Solidarity Spotlight: New York Transit Museum Workers Organize to Join AFSCME

Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Workers at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn have filed for a National Labor Relations Board election to form a union with AFSCME District Council 37.

Following a successful organizing drive by their co-workers in the museum gift shop to join Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 last year, museum educators, visitor experience staff and others are now fighting for union representation, too. Workers went public with their effort to form the New York Transit Museum Collective in early February. Management has yet to voluntarily recognize AFSCME as their bargaining representative, but staff remain committed to fighting for a contract that addresses low wages, lost benefits and other core concerns.

“Our museum tells stories that wouldn’t exist without organized labor,” said Ava Dennis, a part-time museum educator. “We tell these stories, we uplift them and remember them.  We deserve that same sort of opportunity.”