Luis Baucage’s five-month old son is too young to understand Christmas or Santa, but it doesn’t make it any easier for Baucage to know that he cannot shower his family with gifts this coming Christmas.
Baucage is one of the 42 art handlers Sotheby’s kicked out in the streets when the auction house locked them out in late July.
December will mark five months without a paycheck for Baucage and his fellow art handlers. To make matters worse, their health insurance will expire at the start of the New Year.
Working Americans everywhere deserve health care and job security, but companies like Sotheby’s want to milk the middle class for cheap labor. With a flood of signatures, we’ll put pressure on Sotheby’s to do the right thing and end the lockout before these art handlers lose their health care.
On July 29, Sotheby’s decided to initiate the lockout after the art handlers refused to accept a contract that would reduce hours and outsource a large portion of their jobs to a temp agency. The proposal came in the midst of the company’s most profitable quarter in its 267-year history.
Since the lockout, Sotheby’s continues to break sales records and has even given its CEO, William Ruprecht a $3 million raise, when the total cost of the art handlers’ proposed contract is $3.3 million.
Please add your name to the petition asking Sotheby’s to end the lock-out before January 1 so Baucage and his fellow art handlers can get back to work and provide a good living and health care for their families.