The Wonderful Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), the umbrella establishment overseeing the de Younger and Legion of Honor museums within the metropolis, laid off 12 employees, citing a 20% drop in museum guests for the reason that pandemic and “elevated operational prices.”
The layoffs affected roughly 3.5% of FAMSF’s complete workforce, which includes roles funded by the town and others supported by a non-public nonprofit that oversees the museums. Service Workers Worldwide Union 1021 (SEIU 1021), the unit representing some FAMSF positions, knowledgeable Hyperallergic that 4 union positions had been affected: a public packages coordinator, a museum technician, an information companies affiliate, and a publicist.
“The union stewards had been deeply saddened to study these layoffs impacting our members and have been working to make sure our colleagues are compensated appropriately for his or her years of service,” a spokesperson for SEIU 1021 stated in an announcement.
The union stated imminent layoffs weren’t talked about throughout current negotiation conferences, and stated pay cuts to management positions ought to be thought-about sooner or later as a substitute of layoffs.
A spokesperson for the FAMSF advised Hyperallergic that the layoffs didn’t impression city-funded positions, which embody safety and upkeep employees, however declined to state which jobs had been terminated. The cuts had been made “throughout the group,” CEO and Director Thomas Campbell stated within the assertion.
The information comes months after FAMSF proposed a controversial 23% discount of city-funded positions to satisfy a slimmed-down working price range imposed by former Mayor London Breed. In response to a projected $876 million deficit, Breed had requested all metropolis businesses to chop bills by 15%. As a public establishment, FAMSF sometimes receives 20% to 25% of its funding from the town. For FAMSF, Breed’s instructed reduce would have meant a $3.3 million discount in public funds, which the SEIU 1021 union representing some FAMSF jobs, warned could be “detrimental” to the de Younger and Legion of Honor.
Nevertheless, these price range suggestions weren’t the explanation for FAMSF’s current cuts, a spokesperson from the group clarified to Hyperallergic, including that metropolis appropriations aren’t being decreased in Fiscal 12 months 2026.
“San Francisco has skilled a protracted interval of softening tourism, which has led to decreased attendance at our museums,” Campbell stated. “We confronted a monetary hole that might not be closed with out this motion.”
Daniel Lurie took workplace in January as the town’s new mayor, changing Breed, and proposed slight will increase to the museums’ funding in his price range signed into legislation yesterday, July 24. FAMSF’s metropolis appropriations elevated by 3% this yr, the FAMSF spokesperson stated, however will likely be directed largely towards utility and insurance coverage prices.
SEIU 1021 opposed FAMSF’s preliminary plan to chop employees as required by the town, which might have included the elimination of 19 city-funded safety guards and decreased working hours. The cuts would have additionally predominantly affected employees who’re individuals of coloration, the establishment stated.
The Legion of Honor and de Younger museums are removed from the one establishments to report a post-pandemic squeeze. In Might, the San Francisco Museum of Fashionable Artwork laid off 29 employees, accounting for 7.5% of the establishment’s complete workers, citing a $5 million deficit worsened by a post-pandemic vacationer hunch. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum laid off 20 employees members abruptly in April, citing comparable pandemic-related constraints. Additionally in New York, the Brooklyn Museum narrowly averted additional employees cuts because of a $2.5 million windfall from the town final month.
