NORTH ADAMS — The strike is over.
After picketing for almost three weeks, unionized workers at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art have ratified a deal from management that brings most hourly wages to $18 an hour for workers.
The full union vote on the deal on Tuesday ended at 8 p.m., with workers consenting to an agreement drawn up between museum management and union representatives.
The strike began on March 6. Workers will be back to work Wednesday.
“We are very pleased to have reached an agreement with the Mass MoCA that raises minimum pay rates and improves working conditions,” a Tuesday night statement from the union’s bargaining unit reads. “We are looking forward to getting back to the jobs we love.”
In a statement Tuesday night, Mass MoCA Director Kristy Edmunds said, “Equity and wage increases for MASS MoCA's staff have never been a matter of if, but a matter of how fast."
“Mass MoCA’s minimum wage will jump to $18/hour in addition to numerous wage and equity increases," she said in the statement. "Our goal was shared, but our constraints and communication efforts for getting there differed. In our last bargaining session on Sunday, there was authentic, productive cooperation and clarity, which enabled all parties to agree.”
The union's bargaining unit unanimously endorsed the proposed agreement late Sunday. Picketing had been suspended ahead of an expected vote of unionized workers.
People picket in support of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art union strike earlier this month. Union members on Tuesday voted to approve a new contract that includes wage increases and overtime pay, and will be back at work on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the union confirmed that an agreement had been reached and its membership would vote.
The deal settles wages for the next two years.
The union and museum offered insight into the agreement. The 58 percent of the 127 unionized workers who are making $16.25 an hour would see wages increase to at least $18 an hour.
“Full-time staff will receive general wage increases of 3.5 percent in each of the two years, and approximately 16 workers will receive additional equity increases based on seniority and level of responsibility,” union organizer Chelsea Farrell wrote. “Average pay for the unit will increase by 12.1 percent by the second year of the agreement.”
It was quiet on the closed Mass MoCA campus on Tuesday, the museum will be open as usual on Wednesday after workers voted on a new contract, ending a weekslong strike.
A news release from the museum Tuesday night said that the wages are retroactive to Jan. 1, 2024.
The deal establishes additional holiday pay, as well as overtime pay for shifts lasting longer than 10 hours. It gets employees back to work, which both parties want, and it averts another difficult bargaining period over wages, which was scheduled this fall as part of an existing contract.
Days before the strike began, the gap between what the union proposed for pay and what the museum proposed was about $150,000. The union had proposed raising its workers' base wage to $18.25, and Mass MoCA wanted to raise the wage to $17.25.
On Monday, Mass MoCA announced that a tentative agreement had been reached, saying in a statement, "We know how disruptive this has been, and challenging in real and various ways for so many of you."
The union and management had been negotiating a contracted wage increase since October, culminating in a nearly three-week strike.
The museum is moving to close on Wednesdays through April.
"In order to meet the financial realities of the agreement, Mass MoCA will need to further curtail some operations and programs," the email said. "We hope we can all unite around the idea that reliable funding for the arts in this country, and in our MA Commonwealth, is essential to not only Mass MoCA, but also our community's mutual benefit and well being."