Meow Wolf ownership balks at employees’ attempts to form union

Alexej Nawalny

The employees of Meow Wolf announced plans to unionize this week, less than six months after the experiential-art company laid off half of its staff to stem financial losses from the pandemic shutdown.

As one of the the hottest, fastest-growing companies in the region prior to the pandemic, Santa Fe-based Meow Wolf had expanded to markets such as Denver and Las Vegas, with multimillion-dollar exhibitions still under construction and slated to open in 2021.

But in April, Meow Wolf — which had lately seen major investments, but also lawsuits and controversy — said it would lay off 201 of its employees and furlough an additional 56 in an effort to alleviate its “devastating” financial losses during the coronavirus shutdown.

At the time, Meow Wolf would not specify how many Denver employees were laid off or furloughed. Plans to open a three-story Denver location, currently under construction near Interstate-25 and West Colfax Avenue, are still on track.

The Meow Wolf Workers Collective (MWWC), as the union will be called, has already secured membership from the majority of non-management Meow Wolf employees, including workers in Denver and Las Vegas, according to a representative. He would not specify which Denver-based employees are participating.

“We’re very pro-Meow Wolf,” said union representative Michael Wilson via phone from Santa Fe. “Some have been with the company since beginning, some of us are newer.”

Once active, MWWC will operate under the Communications Workers of America. Other unions have already endorsed the plan, Wilson said, although he was not ready to make the endorsements official yet.

The goal of the union is to preserve workers’ rights while returning to the radical, progressive, collective spirit under which the company was founded.

“This is the ideal that built the House” of Eternal Return, Meow Wolf’s Santa Fe exhibition, union officials wrote on unionformeowwolf.com. “This is the ideal that made Meow Wolf a success. With that success comes change. And as Meow Wolf changes, so must we.”

Its website also mentions that MWWC is seeking a contract that will honor the company’s “collaborative ideals,” which would include “employment protections, equitable pay practices, inclusive opportunities for career growth and creativity, and a diverse workplace that is free from discrimination and harassment of any kind.”

“We stand for the company, but we are a very aware that just a few months ago we had a massive layoff, so some people are understandably a little skittish about putting their names out there just yet,” Wilson said, referring to the list of people that have signed onto the union.

MWWC plans to present the names to management once they’re verified. In the meantime, a staff-wide virtual meeting called by ownership on Thursday became a chance to discuss the union, according to a person on the call.

Ownership wasn’t exactly receptive.

“Meow Wolf recognizes and respects our employees’ right to organize,” ownership said in a statement attributed to its “co-CEOs,” who have been previously identified as Ali Rubinstein, Carl Christensen and Jim Ward. “The policies, practices and culture already in place make our company a great place to work and we value our ability to work directly with employees. As such, we feel Meow Wolf works best without a union.”

Union leadership was disappointed by the response, although Wilson said he feels Meow Wolf’s coming “rebirth,” which he hopes will happen early next year, should give employees some leverage.

“We are happy to hear that Meow Wolf respects our legally-protected right to organize, we would like to push back, however, against the message that our union is a third party,” leadership wrote in response. “This is a union built by and for Meow Wolf workers — this union is the result of the passionate work from employees who have taken on the equivalent of a part-time job to make it a reality. Moving forward, we ask the company for neutrality.”

Meow Wolf started as a loose artists’ collective and evolved into a corporate concern, with increasing tourism dollars flowing into New Mexico thanks to Meow Wolf’s wildly popular House of Eternal Return exhibition. Its expansion to additional cities attracted more investment, although employee complaints and lawsuits about harassment and other problems have followed the company since then.

In 2019, the company faced two discrimination suits — one in Denver and one in Santa Fe. Both were settled out of court, according to the Santa Fe Reporter.

“The truth is that Meow Wolf came out of an art collective, so we didn’t know what we were doing at first,” Wilson said. “But we’ve started getting our feet under us and now we know what we’re doing. Part of becoming a company is giving up some of that collective spirit. It’s just how capitalism works. But we think there’s a way to maintain that collectiveness, have a union and be a successful business.”

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