Sotheby's Art Handlers Locked Out

The Wall Street Journal has an article on the ongoing lock-out of Sotheby's art handlers in New York City. This past Friday, Sotheby's notified its 43 unionized art handlers they were being locked out due to an inability to come to new contract terms.

Since the lockout, the art handlers have been picketing Sotheby's New York headquarters. According to the WSJ, the contract with the art handlers union expired on July 1 and negations have not made enough progress. A Sotehby's spokes person stated they took the preemptive measure of locking out the art handlers to ensure they were not caught off guard in the event the union members decided to strike. Sotheby's has since replaced the art handlers with temporary workers.

The Wall Street Journal reports

Union President Jason Ide said the company's recent financial success should allow it to avoid asking for concessions. During 2010, Sotheby's sales increased by 74%, to $4.8 billion, and net income was $161 million.

In addition to defending their benefit and wage demands, art handlers expressed concern that temporary employees would bring to the position an inferior level of training and service, particularly during "crunch time for the company," said one handler, Julian Tysh.

"There's a lot of nuance that goes in art handling," said Mr. Tysh, who has worked at Sotheby's for about six years, mainly with the Contemporary art department. "We have guys who have 40 years on the job, who can tell you the different dynasties from China and can identify the different materials like sandstone. This is not just pushing boxes around."

Mr. Ide, who is a former Sotheby's art handler, added that "pieces that are handled a few times a decade at a museum are handled dozens of times a year at an auction house, and in order to do this stuff you really need to know what you're doing, or things get damaged."
The auction house disputed the idea that its business would suffer from a decline in quality of service with the addition of temporary workers. "Sotheby's is fully staffed and secure and open for business as usual and we will continue to provide the same level of service for our New York clients as we do for our clients around the world," Ms. Phillips said.

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