Ending (10 month) Lockout, Teamsters Wrap Agreement With Sotheby’s

Source: Labor Notes

Jenny Brown

Teamster art handlers voted to settle their dispute with Sotheby’s yesterday, ending a 10-month lockout that became a symbol of Occupy Wall Street’s fight against the austerity agenda of the 1%.

The union’s creative tactics put a spotlight on inequality in the most unequal city in the U.S. While the workers who moved the art faced wage cuts and unstable jobs, art buyers dressed to the nines paid millions for paintings.

The high-end art auction house locked out the 43 Teamsters when they refused a contract that one member said “would put us on the path to extinction” by allowing work to be contracted out to non-union workers with no protections.

Occupy Wall Street took up the cause of the locked-out art handlers, staging a series of disruptions at Sotheby’s auctions. Dressed as customers, they rose to speak about workers’ rights when bidding reached a crescendo, causing the art dealer to impose a $5,000 deposit requirement to attend auction events.

FULL story at link.



Read more: http://labornotes.org/2012/06/ending-lockout-teamsters-wrap-agreement-sothebys

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Teamster art handlers voted to settle their dispute with Sotheby’s yesterday, ending a 10-month lockout that became a symbol of Occupy Wall Street’s fight against the austerity agenda of the 1%.