AGO Workers Vote To Strike

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Art Gallery of Ontario (photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Art Gallery of Ontario workers began striking on Tuesday after voting to strike late Monday evening.

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 535 members turned down an offer that would have given them a 3.25 per cent wage increase and more than two years of retroactive payouts.

The new exhibition, Making Her Mark, was scheduled to open this week.

But according to a story in The Globe and Mail, “the AGO postponed a media preview of the event scheduled for Tuesday without confirming a new date, and said the museum would be closed that day.”

The union represents assistant curators, front-desk staff, art conservators and technicians. Bargaining has been underway for the past 10 months. 

“The union has warned that a growing push for part-time and outsourced work by the gallery has created an ‘underclass of struggling workers; who keep the gallery running as top executives reap salaries which, according to provincial disclosures, can range from about $200,000 to more than $400,000,” according to The Globe and Mail.

Source: The Globe and Mail

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