A little more than a month after a call to unionize among workers—and the subsequent arrival of Reunion for Meow Wolf, a separate, seemingly anti-union group of employees—the proposed Meow Wolf Workers Collective and the arts corporation's leadership have reportedly come to an agreement about how to proceed. It appears the decision will come down to an anonymous vote through eballot.com scheduled ten days from today.
Ballots will automatically be emailed to any employee eligible to vote on the matter and, if the vote goes through, MWWC will operate under the umbrella of the Communication Workers of America, which includes telecommunications and video game workers among others.
"The bargaining unit agreed upon by the company and MWWC stands at 130 employees. This excludes all current employees in Las Vegas and Denver, as well as management and departments that Meow Wolf leadership insisted were not
to be a part of the bargaining unit at this time," reads a press release from the Meow Wolf Workers Collective. "MWWC agreed to the terms in the hopes of a fair
and speedy election and contract negotiation."
The release also says MWWC believes "the majority of Meow Wolf workers are in favor of organizing…despite anti-union measures from company leadership."
Said leadership consists of numerous founders, or those credited with originally creating the Meow Wolf brand, as well as the company's triad of CEOs Ali Rubinstein, Carl Christensen and Jim Ward, known collectively as the OCEO.
"The Communications Workers of America asked Meow Wolf to voluntarily recognize the formation of a union. We have informed them that we would, in fact, be interested in voluntary recognition but only after our employees have a chance to be educated and express themselves first with an anonymous ballot," reads a statement from the OCEO. "This request was made in an effort to establish a communication phase where every single employee can share their thoughts, become more educated on the topic, and ensure that this is a fair process for our entire Meow Wolf team. Based on conversations with many employees, there still seems to be confusion, lack of knowledge and, in some cases, pressure to make a decision…We are happy that we and the CWA, AFL-CIO were able to create a path outside of the [National Labor Relations Board] process to expedite the vote and provide the window for discussion and education, an opportunity for anonymous voting."
"If the election were held today, we would win solidly, and when the election is held on Monday, October 19, we will win solidly," a MWWC spokesman tells SFR. "We think that the company wants to be supportive of it. We don't know that they fully are, but we take them at face value. We do not believe the leadership of Meow Wolf lies to its employees overtly, and we do not believe they're interested in shutting down conversation among employees. We believe them when they say they want us to have the conversation."
The spokesman points to April and the outset of COVID-19, when Meow Wolf eliminated 201 positions and furloughed others, as a reason for potential reticence among possible voters, though SFR later learned such layoffs were likely regardless of the pandemic.
"You're looking at a company that had massive layoffs," the spokesman adds, "and it's an uncertain time—existentially, there's a lot to fear around job security, not just at Meow Wolf—and that's a powerful motivator right now. We can see people being afraid, however, MWWC is confident that when people say they're onboard and going to vote for the union, they will."
A Meow Wolf spokeswoman tells SFR there are "more than 200 current employees."
