“We’re here to work! We want to work!” shouted Eli Petzold as he stood before the locked gates of the Marciano Art Foundation. He was quickly joined by a crowd of almost four dozen people who chanted, “Let us in! Let us in! Let us in!”
Petzold and his colleagues, former docents and visitor services workers at the museum, staged a small but vigorous protest in response to the Marciano Art Foundation’s abrupt decision this week to lay off nearly six dozen workers in the wake of a unionization attempt. This was followed by an announcement on Wednesday that the foundation would close indefinitely.
Several dozen of the laid-off employees, along with supporters (including workers from other museums), showed up at the locked Marciano on Friday morning, some bearing pickets that read “Shame” and “Union Now.”
