Teamsters: Taking Money From Sotheby's Takes Jobs From New Yorkers

Teamsters Call on Museum To Cut All Ties With Auction House

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Tonight at the Whitney Museum of American Art's exclusive Biennial opening, 42 locked-out Sotheby's art handlers will be joined by Occupy Wall Street and other members of the New York City labor movement.

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The union plans to protest the Whitney's decision to accept sponsorship money for its Biennial from Sotheby's and its refusal to cut ties to the auction house.

Recently, the Teamsters wrote to the Whitney asking the museum to take a stand for fair practices in the art world by cutting all ties to Sotheby's.

The workers who are rallying tonight outside of the Whitney are not on strike. Sotheby's kicked them out of their jobs seven months ago with no paychecks.

The auction house sparked the bitter labor dispute when it locked out its 42 art handlers who belong to Teamsters Local 814. Their contract had expired at the end of July 2011. Sotheby's – which grossed $680 million in 2010, its second-most profitable year ever – wants to eliminate the union by demanding all future hires be low-wage temporary workers with no benefits and no collective bargaining rights.

Unlike Sotheby's, the Whitney has maintained a productive and respectful relationship with its art handlers. In fact, the museum just settled a contract with another Teamster local without resorting to a lockout.

"What's so surprising to me is that the Whitney has always lived up to its leading reputation in the art world," said Jason Ide, president of Teamsters Local 814. "We're just very disappointed that they continue to do business with Sotheby's. Sotheby's is using the Whitney to whitewash its image and hide its unjust treatment of workers behind a facade of social responsibility."

Occupy Wall Street, which continues to support the Teamsters with creative and disruptive tactics, recently called on the Museum of Modern Art to cut its ties to the auction house. Now OWS is focusing its attention on the Whitney. On the artsandlabor.org website, the OWS working group published a letter calling on the Whitney to end its relationship with Sotheby's.

"The Whitney did the right thing by settling with its art handlers recently, and they should do the right thing again by cutting ties with Sotheby's until this cruel lockout is ended," said George Miranda, president of Teamsters Joint Council 16.

The Whitney also shares a board member, Henry Cornell, with Sotheby's. Another Sotheby's board member, Danny Meyer, runs the restaurant. The union has repeatedly asked Cornell and Meyer to intervene, but both have refused.

Founded in 1903, the Teamsters Union represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org or follow us @TeamsterPower or @TeamsterNation.

SOURCE Teamsters Local 814