Workers at the Kennedy Center announced their intent to unionize on May 15 in response to mass firings and program cancellations following President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Center.
Roughly 172 Kennedy Center staff members filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to demand workplace rights and fair treatment. The petition followed President Donald Trump’s decision to fire Kennedy Center Board Chair David Rubenstein and appoint himself as chairman in February, causing mass artist boycotts of the Center, a flurry of staff dismissals and the shuttering of departments not aligned with the administration’s ideals.
About 60 percent of Kennedy Center workers voted to unionize, according to a report by the Washington Post. The NLRB requires over 50 percent of votes casted in favor of the unionization in order to formally establish the union and move forward with collective bargaining.
The staff named the union the Kennedy Center United Arts Workers, which operates in partnership with the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, commonly known as the UAW. The KCUAW consists of administrative and production staff of programming, education, development and marketing as well as staff from the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera.
“We are fighting for ourselves and our colleagues—so that the execution of our work cannot be met with retaliation,” the KCUAW website states. “We are fighting for free speech—so that we can advocate for the communities we represent.”
KCUAW did not immediately return a request to comment.
Trump appointed himself as the chairman of the Kennedy Center in February and replaced 18 members of the bipartisan board with White House appointees in an effort to move the Center away from “woke” culture and alleged mismanagement of funding.
President Trump said the former chairman and board of trustees at the Center did not share his administration’s “vision for Golden Age in Arts and Culture” and criticized the Kennedy Center for hosting drag shows that specifically “target our youths” in a Truth Social post on Feb. 7.
“On February 12, our reputation as arts professionals was questioned and we were threatened with censorship,” the union’s website states. “Instantly, that trust was broken. We no longer believe our institution trusts us and we no longer trust our institution.”
Richard Grenell, the Trump-appointed president of the Kennedy Center, told RealClearPolitics that employees should be “celebrating” the spending cuts. Since the start of Grenell’s tenure, about 10 percent of staff have been laid off, according to the Washington Post.
“These people who only now want to speak out and organize, were silent while the Center was going into deficit spending,” Grenell told RCP of the union’s organization.
According to an internal email from Donna Arduin, the Center’s chief financial officer, the Center has an operating deficit of over $100 million, which she cited as the cause of Grenell’s budget cuts.
Trump’s takeover has led to artists boycotting the Center, the cancellation of events and sharp declines in ticket sales.
Single-ticket sales were down roughly 50 percent in April and May, compared with the same period in 2024 and subscriptions to the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera declined 28 percent and 25 percent respectively, according to data compiled by the New York Times.
In March, the Center began dismantling its Social Impact Initiative, which invited diverse artists to perform at the Center to support anti-racism through “organizational self-evaluation,” increased engagement with Black artists and communities, offering meeting spaces for artists and diversifying events.
Interim Executive Director Richard Grenell, who Trump appointed in February, called the Kennedy Center’s spending on the Social Impact initiative a “criminal” mismanagement of funds before Trump took over the Center.
The KCUAW list of demands includes workers protection against wrongful termination and retaliation, improved benefits and wages as well as freedom of speech protections and creative programming autonomy. The KCUAW said that workers want a return to “ethical norms” and “freedom from partisan interference in programming” in an Instagram post on May 15.
“Union organizing is an unparalleled method of gaining power in the workplace and advancing our shared goals—including preservation of our world class artistic programming and industry leading workforce,” the KCUAW said in a statement in the Instagram post.
