Mexican artist Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry Murals stand tall and proud inside the Detroit Institute of Arts, a monument to the power of workers and a city long associated with organized labor.
Those murals, in part, have inspired DIA workers to move to form a union. The DIA Workers United effort was announced Tuesday by the Michigan chapter of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which is asking for voluntary recognition from the museum.
“It’s been something that workers at the museum have been discussing, honestly, since I’ve been there,” says Tyler Taylor, who started at the DIA as an intern in 2008 and joined its education department in 2014, working with schoolteachers to utilize the museum’s resources for students.
“It’s a difficult topic to avoid given that the DIA is home to Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry Murals,” Taylor says. “I don’t know of a greater celebration of labor power and collaboration that has entered the canon. You can’t help but be influenced by that work, how Rivera depicted the dignity of labor.”
Taylor says workers connected with AFSCME earlier this year and are giving the museum 48 hours to recognize their union.
“We are very confident, strong, and determined in our unified efforts to improve the museum,” Taylor says, adding, “We think this would be a powerful and positive signal, one that I would say would be truly in the spirit of the city, that they value collaboration and respect their employees and their right to have a say.”
The DIA Workers United say they seek “fair pay, job security, and a voice in the decision-making process that affects their work.”
“For me, it just strikes me as truly a natural evolution for the DIA, referring to not just Rivera’s work at the heart of the collection, but really the legacy of labor in this city and how through collective bargaining the auto workers built maybe the strongest working class this country has known,” Taylor says. “It’s through that spirit of collaboration that we think that DIA can grow and thrive.”
Taylor adds that he was recently diagnosed with a disability and feels a union would help support him as he navigates it.
“Just the prospect of engaging with a monolithic human resources department, even if they’re good people, it can be intimidating and overwhelming because that’s a relationship where one side has all the power and legal authority,” Taylor says. “And so our union will work to help make workers feel secure in those situations and supported by their colleagues.”
He adds, “You always feel more secure when you’re supported by your colleagues and you’re working in concert toward a shared goal.”
In a statement, the DIA acknowledged the union effort.
“The Detroit Institute of Arts is profoundly grateful for our talented staff — the heart of everything we do,” the museum said. “For decades we have had valued relationships with the two unions representing some of our colleagues, and those relationships have been built on mutual respect. We fully respect our employees’ legal rights to organize and to choose whether they wish to be represented by a union. On Tuesday, November 4th, the DIA received a letter requesting that it recognize a union seeking to represent groups of employees who are currently unrepresented. The DIA continues to be committed to having a fair, supportive, and inspiring workplace.”
Workers and community members can learn more and sign a letter of support at diaworkersunited.org.