BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — The Buffalo AKG Art Museum will lay off 13 Visitor Experience Associates in April, impacting a significant portion of its workforce.
The layoffs come amidst ongoing unionization efforts, which began in the fall of 2023. The Visitor Experience Department has lost approximately 60% of its staff, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
"Honestly, it was pretty devastating," said Zanad Colon Barreto, an affected employee who has worked at the museum for the past two years.
As the AKG plans to lay off 13 employees, the museum will hire 11 security staff.
"They are 24/7 associates who are responsible for really guarding everything here at the museum, making sure that we are safe, make sure that our assets are safe," said Andrea Harden, AKG's Director of Talent and Culture.
However, the AKG workers' union says this will also decrease the number of union members at the museum.
"The museum decided to lay off 13 union positions, the same two weeks that they decided to hire 11 non-union positions who do very similar work," said Casey Moore, a representative from the museum's union.
Arthur Wheaton, Director of Labor Studies at Cornell, provided context on why this could be an option for the AKG.
"The public or the people in Erie County deserve good paying jobs there," said Wheaton. "So I don't think they did it so that they could do union busting and try to have low-pay work."
Harden stated that decisions like these are made intentionally and carefully, highlighting the museum's commitment to supporting its staff.
"We love our employees, we love our staff, we have such a passionate staff, so anytime we have to make or decide any kind of move, we have to do it intentionally, and we really have to think through this, and that's what we've done and you know, we will always continue to, support our staff and support the passion and the experience and the expertise that they bring to the Buffalo," said Harden.
The AKG Workers United Union has announced plans to rally in front of the museum on Friday in response to the layoffs.
You can read a full provided statement from Harden below:
“As the Buffalo AKG Art Museum expanded, internal discussions during construction focused on how to staff a significantly larger and more spread out set of buildings, along with new public and gallery spaces. In preparation for the opening of the Buffalo AKG in 2023, the size of the museum’s staff more than doubled to nearly 200, with many of those additional hires focused on visitors’ experience in the new spaces. Over the past 20 months of actual operations, we carefully evaluated those decisions and examined data about overall staffing effectiveness. We found there were considerable redundancies and overlapping responsibilities with opportunities for improvement. As a non-profit institution, we have a duty to be thoughtful, vigilant stewards of our resources.
We concluded that the role of the Visitor Experience Associate was not functioning the way we anticipated. As a result of this planned operational change, the Preservation & Safety staff, who have always secured the AKG’s assets and facilities, will stop sharing that task with Visitor Experience Associates and return to taking full responsibility for their original and essential service.
Visitor Experience Associates will resume their sole focus on engaging with visitors. However, with those two roles newly re-defined, based on 20 months of operational experience, we determined 13 Visitor Experience employees are not needed to meet the actual demands of their refined roles. On Monday, the Buffalo AKG notified affected employees and their union of these layoffs, which are planned to take effect in April. We are meeting with the union Thursday to discuss these changes.
While these operational changes will position the museum to more effectively serve its visitors, the elimination of staff positions is difficult and painful. We look forward to working collaboratively with the union to ensure affected employees receive the support they need. Additionally, under the Collective Bargaining Agreement signed late last year, employees in the bargaining unit who are laid off have preference for rehiring to their prior department by seniority. We will do everything within the collective bargaining agreement to support and ease the transition of these 13 employees.
To be clear, these planned changes are focused on refining and improving the visitor experience at the Buffalo AKG and are not related in any way to affected employees’ membership in the union.
These changes are in line with frequent adjustments the Buffalo AKG made to its operations since opening in June 2023. These include changes to operating hours, admission and parking prices, and the creation of the new Retail Associate position, which is in the union. These efforts and their outcomes informed our decision-making about the planned changes we announced this week.
The end result of these changes is that security personnel will do the same duties they have always done: secure the museum’s assets and facilities 24/7 and, to a lesser extent, engage with visitors and answer questions. The Visitor Experience Associates will focus their efforts on ensuring the Buffalo AKG offers a world-class visitor experience.”
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