Brooklyn Museum Extends Timeline for Widely Criticized Layoffs

Last night, March 6, three days before layoffs were set to take effect at the Brooklyn Museum, Director Anne Pasternak sent an email to all staff announcing a one-week extension of this timeline as the institution awaits news of possible city funding.

“As part of our ongoing dialogues, this afternoon it was suggested that the City Council might provide additional funds toward our next fiscal year budget (starting July 1),” Pasternak wrote in the email. “We take the potential of more funding seriously and are allowing time to learn more about this possibility.”

Facing a $10 million budget deficit, the Brooklyn Museum said on February 9 that it would cut 47 full- and part-time staff and reduce programming as it grapples with a “significant cash flow problem.” Since then, museum unions UAW Local 2110 and District Council 37 Local 1502 have relentlessly called for the layoffs to be reversed and for leadership to explore alternatives, such as furloughs. The cuts were set to take effect this Sunday, March 9; now, workers have until March 16 to make their voices heard.

The possibility of increased city support to address the museum’s financial shortfall came up during a special oversight hearing by the City Council’s Committee on Civil Service and Labor last Friday, February 28. Henry A. Garrido, executive director of District Council 37, one of the two unions at the museum, questioned the urgency of the layoffs in light of the city’s budget timeline.

“The budget process ends in June.  If you have the best possible intentions to address the financial problems of the museum, why would you make the layoffs effective March 9?” he asked. “Why not wait to see what we could have done?”

Pasternak stressed in February’s all-staff meeting that city funding has “not kept pace with funding our DC 37 salaries, requiring the museum to cover a much larger share of year-over-year increases.”

According to New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) Commissioner Laurie Cumbo, the agency currently allocates about $10.5 million to the Brooklyn Museum, accounting for around 20% of the institution’s operational budget. These subsidies cover approximately half the salary costs for roles in District 37 Local 1502, the union representing security guards and technicians, among others, Cumbo said at Friday’s hearing.

Hyperallergic has contacted the Brooklyn Museum and both unions for comment.

Maida Rosenstein, president of UAW Local 2110, told Hyperallergic that the union’s members hope the recent developments “will be a pathway for averting the layoffs of the talented, dedicated workers of the Brooklyn Museum.”

“We appreciate the elected officials and our fellow unionists in DC37 AFSCME who worked toward this funding,” Rosenstein said. “It’s now up to the museum to work with both our unions to save jobs and strengthen the museum.”