Issue and opposition: Guggenheim Museum has often been the target of activists because of its low wages, deplorable working conditions, and other abusive labor practices and policies. The museum is not only limited to New York but also has an international campus in the Middle East. While its presence outside the United States gives international art lovers a chance to view several masterpieces, the museum has drawn severe criticism at home and abroad for its labor abuses on foreign soil. The protests against the Guggenheim Museum management were organized by the Global Ultra Luxury Faction, an offshoot of the Gulf Labor coalition in 2014, and continued for the next 8 years until the workers were unionized.
Dilemma Action: In 2014, protesters from the Global Ultra Luxury Faction demonstrated in the rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum. The protesters marked the beginning of the protest by ringing a bell and by scattering 9000 mock currency notes with messages, such as “What does an ethical global museum look like?” A previous dilemma action by Abbie Hoffman in 1967 at the New York Stock Exchange when he and his followers poured down actual and fake currency bills on the traders. The motivation for the inscription on the bills may have come from the 2012 dilemma action by Ben Cohen and his organization Stamp Stampede in which hundreds of actual bills were stamped with anti-corruption messages and circulated in the economy.
Outcome: The dilemma action was part of a larger campaign by the workers of the Guggenheim Museum and continued for the next 8 years. The recent news on this confirms that the protesting workers have formed their unions to carry out wage and working conditions negotiations more effectively with the museum management. The management has shown some concessions although workers want the management to satisfy many more of their demands. A 2021 media report reveals that the union has successfully bargained to increase the salaries of workers by almost 10 percent above the contract and to pursue the museum to offer some health benefits to the workers. Additionally, the museum management has agreed to address the security and safety concerns of the workers and formulate labor-friendly policies.