Unionised staff at the Whitney Museum of American Art have set a strike deadline of 5 October, escalating a contract fight that could disrupt one of the museum's flagship autumn exhibitions. Members of United Auto Workers Local 2110, whose three-year contract with the museum expired in June, voted to authorise strike action in mid-September alongside workers at the Brooklyn Museum and the American Folk Art Museum. The Whitney union is the first of the three to put a date on the calendar, announcing it will walk out on 5 October unless a fair agreement is reached. At the centre of the dispute is pay. The union wants the museum to lift the base salary for full-time employees to $71,000 a year — the figure cited in a New York City cost-of-living report as the minimum a single adult needs to live in the city. Workers also point to rising healthcare costs and premiums. The union contrasts those demands with the Whitney's endowment of more than $1 billion and its executive compensation, arguing the institution can afford to meet them. Entry-level wages rose from $17 to $24 an hour under the previous contract, and the union has been bargaining since May. The timing is pointed. The possible strike falls just before the press and member previews for Like New, a major Roy Lichtenstein retrospective opening to the public on 11 October. Maida Rosenstein, the director of organising for UAW Local 2110, said the strike is open-ended and could continue indefinitely. One worker on the negotiating committee, Micah Musheno, joined the museum as an unpaid curatorial intern before working her way to a full-time licensing role. A museum spokesperson said the Whitney continues bargaining in good faith and remains committed to a fair contract. The Brooklyn Museum's union has since reached a tentative agreement, with members voting on ratification this week — a development that may avert action there. Local 2110 also represents workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, and is currently bargaining with the Guggenheim and the Noguchi Museum.