On the heels of a historic municipal work stoppage that left Philadelphia’s streets drowning in mounting garbage piles, unionized staff at the Penn Museum are inching toward a strike to obtain higher wages from the University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in the city.Members of Penn Museum Workers United Local 397, which represents around 50 staffers across visitor services, public programming, collections management, conservation, and other departments at the archaeology and anthropology museum, unanimously voted to authorize a strike last week after their contract expired at the end of June. Though the local unit has not yet called a work stoppage, its executive board is prepared to do so if negotiations do not improve, a representative for the group told Hyperallergic. Later today, workers plan to stage an informational picket outside the museum’s Garden Jams event to amplify their calls for increased salaries. The museum union has been in negotiations with the university for weeks, demanding a wage increase that not only keeps pace with the rising cost of living but also addresses alleged pay inequities.Hyperallergic has contacted the Penn Museum for comment.Since their first contract was ratified in 2023, the university has not raised the bargaining unit’s lowest hourly pay of $17, the union said in a statement shared with elected officials. And currently, the starting pay rates for half of the jobs represented in the labor group are below $23.26 an hour — the benchmark wage that an individual must earn in order to support themselves in Philadelphia, according to the MIT Living Wage Calculator. The university’s most recent proposal would see the lowest pay rate rise to $18.32 by 2028.“Despite Penn being the largest and one of the wealthiest private employers in the city, too many of the workers we represent at the Museum struggle to make ends meet,” the union said in its statement.“The majority of time in bargaining sessions is spent not negotiating but waiting for management to respond with yet another rejection,” the union added.Penn Museum Workers United is part of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — the trade union representing the city’s roughly 9,000 municipal employees who recently suspended work for eight days. It is also part of Philly Cultural Workers United, which consists of employees at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Please Touch Museum, and Schuylkill Center. In 2022, the chapter at the Philadelphia Museum of Art went on strike for 19 days until they had ratified their first contract, which also expired at the end of June.“It’s past time for Penn to come to the table with serious proposals that meet the needs of workers and allow the parties to reach agreement,” the union’s statement to elected officials read.