Oy Vey, What A Pickle

The museum dedicated to helping visitors understand the trials and tribulations of the overworked, underpaid and unappreciated turn-of-the-century tenement dweller is playing hardball with its own employees:

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum’s tour guides, educators and costumed interpreters — those who don early 20th century garb to tell the stories of the immigrants who lived at 97 Orchard St. — demanded yesterday their employer recognize their union, Local 2110 UAW.

Workers said that the museum’s operations and budget have increased in recent years, but most of them have received little or no pay increases, according to the union’s recording secretary Eden Schulz. Most workers are hired on a per diem basis, receiving no benefits or guaranteed schedule of hours. More than a majority of the 40 workers signed membership cards, Schulz said, and a group of them met with the museum’s executive vice president Barry Roseman, handing him a letter asking the museum to agree to a membership card count — which is when a neutral third party certifies the majority status.