When Jessica Evans was hired as the retail and publications coordinator at Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery (CAG) in February of 2019, there were already discussions happening among workers about forming a union.

Employees wanted to unionize to improve their working environment and increase wages, which for some staff were below Vancouver’s living wage. 

“I think there’s a big difference between coming to management and asking for something or hoping management will give you something, verses meeting as a group and coming to management as an entity that wants to negotiate,” explained Evans, who works in the gallery’s bookstore and reference library, and now serves as the Arts and Cultural Workers’ Union (ACWU) shop steward for CAG.

Staff “were interested in unionizing to try to make the gallery more hospitable to future workers and for themselves,” she said.

According to Evans, the approximately 10-person staff had very little say in the operations of the gallery.

“The hierarchy between the director and the staff is very pronounced,” she explained, “and so it’s very easy for practices that aren’t always in the best interests of the workers to become habituated in the gallery.”

United in a shared vision for change, CAG staff began meeting with unions to identify one that they could potentially join. They felt attraction to ACWU, whose membership work in galleries and the fine arts.

“Ultimately we decided to go with ACWU. We felt that even though it was a very new union, they felt very aligned with the gallery and seemed to be very enthusiastic,” said Evans.

Cards to join ACWU were circulated and signed, and on July 28, 2020, CAG workers voted unanimously to join the union, in a vote conducted by the BC Labour Relations Board.

That October, staff began negotiations with management for the gallery’s first collective agreement. And after approximately six months of negotiations, a three-year collective agreement was ratified in April 2021.  

The contract achieved important gains for the gallery’s lowest paid and most precarious employees, and is a shining example of how people organized together can raise the bar for everyone.  

“There was definitely concern for the people who were making the least,” explained Evans. “Even for an entry-level position the wages were pretty low.” She said that there were staff working in so-called entry-level positions, that in reality, required higher skills and capacities. “And ultimately, we felt that Vancouver is a very expensive city.”

She said the lowest wage at CAG before the new collective agreement was $17.00/hour. “That’s not a living wage in Vancouver.” They wanted pay rates that resembled wages paid by similar organizations in the sector.

“We felt that a non-profit, publicly-funded art organization needs to be able to offer the people who work there a living wage." 

The ratified contract delivers on these pay increases.

Workers also won union membership for the gallery’s temporary workers. They wanted to see them receive the benefits that permanent staff have – or pay in lieu of benefits.

Members from the Contemporary Art Gallery with ACWU President Jonny Sopotiuk, (L-R): Julia Neville, Danielle Green, Phil Dion, Julia Lamare, Conor Moore, Jessica Evans, Pippa Lattey, and Jonny Sopotiuk.

“We were also very happy to be able to bargain that temporary, short-term, recurring workers would be included as bargaining members in the union. That was very specific to galleries because art galleries employ people to work as preps during the installation and de-installation of exhibitions.”

Evans said staff also entered negotiations seeking clearer job descriptions and job titles. “I think some people thought it would be beneficial to have clear delineations between the type of work that they do, that the director does. The type of work that the curators do. There tends to be a lot of blurring between these roles.”

She said that this sometimes affected workload, as well as workers’ autonomy in their jobs.

According to Evans, the gallery’s management was very amenable to their proposals, which contributed to a positive bargaining experience. 

And the bargaining process itself was inclusive. All the employees from CAG played an active role in bargaining, which Evans said was fairly easy to facilitate given the small size of the staff. Workers all took turns attending weekly prep meetings and the bargaining sessions, which were held over Zoom.  

“It was a really positive experience for myself and for the group I believe,” said Evans. “It’s important for people to feel that they have leverage in their workplace.”

“It’s nice to feel that there’s a bit of equity between the two roles,” said Evans. The union has provided staff with a collective voice to seek solutions to workplace issues.

CAG is a non-profit public art gallery located on Nelson Street in downtown Vancouver that showcases contemporary works from artists in Canada and around the world. In addition to its exhibits, the gallery is host to a variety of events, community engagement programs, and artistic residencies.