39% of Sotheby's shareholders side with Teamsters

Today the Teamsters brought a giant inflatable pig. Can't think why.

Sotheby's medieval management practices (e.g., 9-month lockout of its 42 Teamster art handlers) were scrutinized today by the auction house's shareholders. A lot didn't like what they saw. Thirty-nine percent voted with Teamsters to oppose automatic looting  by bonuses to executives if the company is taken over.

Reports Bloomberg,

Sotheby’s General Counsel Gilbert Klemann announced that a Teamsters proposal opposing automatic executive payouts in a takeover got 39 percent of votes. The Teamsters had said immediately vesting some stock-payment plans amounts to a “golden parachute” that disregards executive performance.

Bloomberg also quoted Tommy McAllister, a locked-out art handler, talking to Board Chairman Michael Sovern at the meeting:

Five art handlers who own shares in Sotheby’s attended the meeting. Thomas McAllister, who has worked at Sotheby’s for 23 years, contrasted its $171.4 million profit last year with his own finances since the July 29 lockout.

“My family isn’t doing well,” McAllister told Sovern. “There is not a party in my household.”

Let's see if Mr. Sovern gives a damn.

What would Elvis think? Sotheby's selling "Double Elvis"

We learn from the tweetosphere that the union-busting pawn shop for the 1 percent Sotheby's will auction off a 1963 Andy Warhol print of Elvis called "Double Elvis." According to Art in America,

Double Elvis [Ferus Type] was first seen at Ferus Gallery the year it was made, and is the first Double Elvis to go on sale since 1995.

It is estimated to sell for as much as $30-50 million and will be exhibited at Sotheby's Los Angeles from this Wednesday, Mar. 21.

We have three comments:

1. It figures. Sotheby's is to the 99 percent as Col. Tom Parker was to Elvis: exploitative, callous and greedy. Throwing 42 Teamster art handlers on the street for 7-1/2 months is the moral equivalent of Parker's ruthless exploitation -- and ultimate destruction -- of The King.
2. Elvis was a union man, having signed his Musicians' Union card in 1956. He would not have approved of the lockout.
3. The 1 percent has too much money. $50 million for a print?

If only Sotheby's were more like Walter Hale and less like Col. Parker. In his film "The Trouble with Girls," Elvis plays Hale, a festival promoter, who falls in love with a fiery union organizer played by Marilyn Mason.

He tells her, "The relations between negotiating parties must be honest." (He also adds "and intimate," but we'll leave that off in the context of Sotheby's.)

Today's Teamster News 03.06.12

Rght-to-work hearing canceled  Post-Tribune   ...the vacation of the TRO doesn’t change anything for the time being. “The legislation will have its time in court, where both sides will have their chance for good debate,” Corbin said...
Kasich turns down federal disaster aid  Cincinnati Enquirer   ...his decision means tornado-ravaged towns in Ohio will not get federal aid now and are not eligible at this time for potentially millions of dollars in payments and loans...
Judge rules Michigan's PLA ban unconstitutional  AFL-CIO Now   ...A federal judge has ruled that Michigan’s ban on the use of project labor agreements—pushed by Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and anti-worker lawmakers—is unconstitutional...
Trial of Iceland ex-PM Haarde over 2008 crisis begins  BBC News   ...The trial of former Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde, on charges of negligence over the 2008 financial crisis, has begun in Reykjavik. Mr Haarde is thought to be the first world leader to face criminal charges over the crisis...
Spain's sovereign thunderclap and the end of Merkel's Europe  The Telegraph   ...Premier Mariano Rajoy has refused point blank to comply with the austerity demands of the European Commission and the European Council...There comes a point when a democracy can no longer sacrifice its citizens to please reactionary ideologues determined to impose 1930s scorched-earth policies...
Dartmouth Students Urge Trustee Diana Taylor To End Sotheby's Lockout  Teamsters Local 814   ...Teamsters art handlers are continuing their seven-month-long campaign to end their lockout by Sotheby's auction house...

'Cut ties to Sotheby's' rally, Part II

We couldn't quite figure out what this photo showed until we were enlightened by our brother Dave Martinez, shop steward for Local 814's art handlers at Sotheby's. The photo accompanied some shots of Teamsters and friends rallying outside of the Museum of Modern Art.

Here's how Dave explained the photo:

So, we stood outside of MOMA and explained to people the lockout situation and how MOMA continues to do business with Sotheby's while we are locked out, etc., and asked them to help Support us by dropping these STOP SELLING AT SOHEBY'S flyers at the information desk. We gave out 120 of them. We sent someone inside to take pictures of them on the desks. When we were done we marched through the lobby chanting Sotheby's UNFAIR - MOMA UNFAIR. It was a very successful Action. The free Friday audience was very receptive.

Sotheby's Teamsters take action against Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York last night got Occupied again -- by Teamsters from Local 814, Occupy Wall Street, museumgoers, artists, arts enthusiasts and culture activists.

The groups gathered outside of the multimillion-dollar exhibition of Diego Rivera's legendary murals and disrupted museumgoers' quiet viewing experience.

Organizer Noah Ficher addressed the crowd, giving them an alternative interpretation of Rivera's art:

Work by Rivera.

They're not miracles of art. They're works.

The action was chiefly the effort of Occupy Museums, an Occupy Wall Street working group that fights against the influence of the 1% in the arts. As outspoken supporters of the locked-out Teamsters, Occupy Museums activists fight the "Sotheby's economy" -- a system of elite influence that works to "support" the arts with one hand, then grabs at its profit with the other.

MoMa deals with Sotheby's, which threw 43 art handlers out of work because they demanded a fair standard of living from the mega-rich employer.

The visit followed the action last Friday, when Occupy Museums took to MoMa in collaboration with labor activists from Occupy Sotheby's (who had last been seen getting jostled in the picket line clash during the Nov. 9 auction.

Felix Cardinal, an art handler of 4 years who came to MoMa assembly, said he appreciated Occupy Wall Street's support:

We know that OWS can take action and walk the walk, but now I'm even more impressed by this level of conversation taking place. I'm inspired that people who seriously care about art are doing something to help our cause, that this issue stretches way beyond just Sotheby's.

Rivera's works, which depict scenes of life, labor and inequality in the new industial world, were commissioned in part by corporate mogul and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller. When he saw that they depicted a pro-worker message, Rockefeller wouldn't let the work remain on display in 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

Arts activist Ariel Lugo pointed out that the exhibit's success resulted from art handlers' skill:

The art handlers who installed this exhibit had their work cut out for them, because these murals were painted on cement. They were painted on cement because Rivera thought they'd be shown in a public space, not in a museum with corporate-subsidized admission.

Harrison Magee, a member of Occupy Sotheby's, said:

Rivera wouldn't have wanted his paintings here. His works stood for the interests of working people, whose voices are being silenced everywhere.

As Sotheby's enters a new auction season having once again broken sales records in the fall, they have still yet to reach a fair agreement with the Teamsters union. Estimates predict that the lockout has by now cost the company more money than they would have spent over the course of the 3-year contract as proposed by the union. with new parts of the movement now getting involved, OWS is throwing the weight of the 99% back into the fight to end the lockout.