Council Members Want Better Pay For Museum Food Service Workers

Rendering of new museum viewed from the west side of N. 6th St. Rendering by Kahler Slater.

The proposal to build a replacement for the Milwaukee Public Museum didn’t get a very warm reception Tuesday at City Hall.

Common Council members appear to have no concern over the design of the $240 million complex, but they are concerned that service workers at the facility won’t be paid at least $15 per hour and given union-like job protections.

“Are you prepared to enter into a community benefits agreement with appropriate labor organizations to cover those categories?” said Robert Bauman, referencing the council’s 2019 CORE resolution that calls for downtown development projects to adopt agreements similar to one that protects workers at Fiserv Forum. Alderwoman JoCasta Zamarripa also said she had the same concern.

“Anybody that is not in management is in the union,” said museum CEO Ellen Censky. But that doesn’t apply to food service workers, which a private contractor would employ.

The museum development team present Tuesday wasn’t aware of the CORE resolution. “We did not bring up the CORE specifically,” said Department of City Development (DCD) planning manager Sam Leichtling, citing the lack of city money in the deal and the fact that the museum currently has a union for its employees.

“It doesn’t limit it to that by its very language,” said Bauman. “This has been a problem before.” The wages and job protections for janitorial workers once threatened the Milwaukee Tool subsidy agreement. “We pass things, we set policy and everybody forgets.”

But Leichtling said DCD hadn’t forgotten. “My understanding is they are a union workforce,” said the planning manager. He said the miscommunication was the fault of DCD.

Censky said the museum would welcome a union-operated food service bidder, but wasn’t requiring one.

“Are you ensuring what their minimum wage is?” asked Zamarripa about the bidders. “No,” said Censky. “We don’t even have our cafe design at this point to determine what we need.”

Bauman said the council should hold the pending zoning change until the museum learned about the CORE resolution and said the non-mandatory ordinance gave members the ability to vote against the change in the future.

“Delaying this project may be catastrophic to our project schedule,” said owner’s representative Michael Emem. He said it could imperil a 2024 groundbreaking. Concerns about fundraising were also raised.

Ald. Michael Murphy offered a compromise. The museum team would be allowed to review the resolution in advance of the July 31 full council meeting and provide a written response. “If it’s not satisfactory, we can hold it on the council floor or send it back to the committee,” said the committee chair. “It appears it wasn’t an intentional mistake by the museum.”

“I agree with that,” said Bauman. He said council members could still vote no if the nonprofit organization isn’t going to agree to a benefits agreement. “It’s very simple.”

“We have every intent to abide by or meet the CORE,” said Censky. “The food service workers, again, are not our employees.”

“But it’s the contract you get,” said Ald. Russell W. Stamper, II. “You bid out a contract.”

“I already know the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization are ready to meet with you immediately to work this out,” said Zamarripa.

Murphy warned the museum that it would only take three council members to vote to hold the deal at the full meeting. “I don’t use that as a threat, just to say that that’s their prerogative as members of the council,” he said.

The council is formally reviewing a base zoning change to enable the development of a new natural history museum at the corner of N. 6th Street and W. McKinley Avenue.

The committee advanced the change to the full council. Zamarripa abstained.

For more information on the museum proposal, see our extensive past coverage.

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Related Legislation: File 221922