Workers at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia have overwhelmingly voted to form a union with Philadelphia Cultural Workers United, AFSCME Local 397 (District Council 47).
Staff at the maritime history museum are the latest cultural workers in the city to organize, joining the ranks of their peers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Penn Museum, the Schuylkill Center and the Please Touch Museum as members of AFSCME. The union effort was made public in April and quickly gained traction with workers who shared concerns around understaffing, safety aboard historic ships and wages.
“For many of us, the decision to unionize came from a shared need to build a more secure, more productive workplace,” said Jacob Roman, a shipboard interpretation coordinator. “We care about the museum’s mission, and we’re excited to have the tools, protocol and staffing to do that work well....We didn’t need to convince people—most of us already believed in what we were doing. It was about keeping communications consistent, open and honest.”