PHILADELPHIA—After a multi-year, wall-to-wall organizing campaign, workers at the Independence Seaport Museum (ISM) not only certified their affiliation with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) District Council 47, but also won significant gains on economic and health and safety issues in contract negotiations. ISM workers credit their contract victory to the cultural workers who organized Local 397, collective indignation by management, and strong public support via social media.
Organizers have led three major sectors of workers at ISM to commit to joining AFSCME’s nascent Cultural Workers United project. Workers across the ships, ticket sales, and facility maintenance united over low pay, management’s ignorance over museum stewardship, and a general sense that the “Board of Port Wardens” governing ISM would continue to prioritize profits over workers’ safety without a counterweight. In 2007, former museum director John S. Carter was convicted of embezzling millions of the non-profit’s funds and misusing assets like yachts for his own personal gain.
While current museum management is not accused of such brazen corruption, it has remained aloof to workers’ health and safety concerns on historic ships like the steel cruiser Olympia. Instead of completing a capital campaign to fully remove asbestos from Olympia’s hull or to make dry-dock hull repairs, the museum’s management has instead alienated top talented staff and disheartened naval history enthusiasts broadly.
The Independence Seaport Museum sits along the Delaware River in a popular leisure zone known as Penn’s Landing. Since the loss of industrial capital and surging unemployment after World War II, Philadelphia politics has been driven by questions of how to “redevelop” abandoned or blighted properties. Shall the public democratically make plans for collective use or will capital-owners push for private profit? ISM workers have taken big steps in asserting that people should come before profits in the future of Philly’s storied waterfront.
“The Independence Seaport Museum is a testament to the long history of labor and union power at Philadelphia’s ports. We are excited the museum itself is now part of that history and look forward to continuing our work with ISM to support the workers behind this Philadelphia landmark,” said Halcyone Schiller, President of Philly Cultural Workers United-AFSCME DC47 Local 397 in a joint statement with ISM management.
By no means was the effort a lazy row down the river for workers intent on organizing. One newly-trained union steward, Jacob Roman, spoke highly of Local 397’s efforts to train him and a dozen other coworkers at DC 47’s downtown office during a fall 2024 organizing meeting. Learning outcomes included collecting signatures, leading 1-1 conversations, and establishing effective digital communication channels. Over the next year, hard work paid off, and in summer 2025 DC 47 announced to ISM management that 70% of their employees had signed union cards.
“We caught the museum managers by surprise when we announced our intent to unionize with AFSCME. That day was a total morale boost and happened because of our collective commitment,” said Jacob.
Still, the workers and managers found a wide gap between their positions during contract negotiations. While the workers’ organizing committee presented research on why their non-economic demands on health and safety were necessary, many felt like management dragged its feet until its lawyers warned it about the legal risks. Mike Flynn, ISM’s executive vice-president, downplayed the health threat shipboard interpreters faced in early June 2023, when boreal forest wildfire smoke choked the city’s air, producing Air Quality Index levels of 425-500 ppm. On June 7, two workers left work early to seek shelter at home.
On June 8, the air quality did not improve. ISM closed for business and told employees to stay home. The next month, the Office of Safety and Health Administration sent an agent to interview workers affected and to document the museum’s response. At the time, Mr. Flyn responded to the filing of incident reports over the air quality threat by claiming the forms were inappropriately used, adding another grievance to workers’ buckets.
In fact, shipboard workers also have had years-long complaints over Cruiser Olympia’s leaky top deck, which becomes an environmental hazard and a nuisance to catch every drop with rusty buckets. Unfortunately, over the course of contract negotiations, several workers with specialized knowledge about preserving the century-old ship resigned. Future generations’ ability to interpret U.S. naval history and its role in the country’s imperial projects in countries like the Philippines will suffer due to management’s reluctance to bargain fairly.
Flash forward to negotiations in Fall 2026, and the museum managers had been compelled to concede on workers’ demand for a permanent labor-management committee headed by workers and with purview over health and safety. Museum workers across every department ratified the 3-year agreement, which includes immediate raises averaging 8.55%, paid parental leave, and even a clause to protect jobs from automation. These gains were meaningful to ISM workers, half of whom had been paid $15 or less at an institution with an over $6 million annual budget.
“The difficult push for a union is worthwhile because it’s community building in a way that is antithetical to time behind screens. It’s a way back into the community when so much of our time outside of the workplace can be so lonely,” said public engagement worker Donovan.
The newest members of AFSCME DC 47 Local 397 are already discussing how to enforce their current contract and what the struggle could look like at negotiations three years ahead. They also look forward to getting to know Philly’s big labor family better at gatherings like May Day 2027.
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