A well-dressed doorman wasn't the only person greeting visitors at Sotheby's Upper East Side location this weekend. Members of the auction house's art handlers union picketed the sidewalk all day Saturday and Sunday, brandishing signs that read, "Stop the War on Workers." The protest marks a dramatic turn in contract negotiations, which have been underway since May. On Friday, the 43 union art handlers, whose contract expired at the beginning of July, received letters telling them not to come to work on Monday. The auction house has locked out workers until the two parties can agree on a contract.

Sotheby's will bring in temporary replacement workers for the duration of the lockout, during which union employees will be unable to work or collect paychecks. "They think it's going to put pressure on us to accept the proposal," Jason Ide, president of Teamsters Local 814 and a former art handler himself, told ARTINFO. But the Teamsters have no plans to accept the agreement. According to Ide, the list of concessions is similar to that which Sotheby's has been advocating for the duration of negotiations, including the long-term reduction of senior union workers and a shortened workweek.

Diana Phillips, a spokesperson for Sotheby's, said the auction house had been negotiating "in good faith" and called the terms of the contract "attractive." "This was not an outcome Sotheby's wanted," she told ARTINFO via e-mail. She said that other unions representing employees of Sotheby's had agreed to the same terms in previous contract negotiations.  

The Teamsters plan to picket outside the auction house all week, and will gather for a rally on Tuesday morning. "Management had been quoted in the media saying that they were going totake as much time as necessary to bargain a fair contract. Clearly,that didn't happen," Ide said.

Previous media reports focused on the possibility that the art handlers might strike, though it remained "a last resort," according to Ide. But the strike threats, made both at the bargaining table and in the media, were a major impetus for the lockout, according to Phillips. "Given the repeated threats of a strike, which could have beenorganized at any time, and our fall season just over a month away, weneeded to make alternative staffing arrangements so we could assure ourclients of smooth and uninterrupted service," she said.

Sotheby's locked out art handlers during contract negotiations in 2004for three weeks, and workers took to picket lines in response. But "the company was in a very different situation then financially," said Ide, noting that the Upper East Side auction house has had a very successful year. Revenue increased 17 percent to a told of $161 million, sales increased by almost double the previous year to $4.8 billion, and CEO William Ruprecht's salarymore than doubled in 2010, reaching almost $6 million. "What's soshocking about this is... labor costs are really not what's dictatingprofit," said Ide. "This isn't a factory where every time a worker getsa nickel raise, the price of the product goes up."

Phillips indicated that the 2004 lockout illustrates precedent: "In the past, Sotheby's has not permitted property handlers towork indefinitely without a collective bargaining agreement in placethat provides protection against a strike," she said. 

According to Phillips, Teamsters 814 had proposed the addition of 18 newunion employees, a 42 percent increase in union staff. She said thatthis addition would result in Sotheby's employing significantly moreproperty handlers than the total number of Christie's unionemployees, despite the fact that Sotheby's New York handled 54 percentfewer lots than Christie's in 2010. (Ide led the union in a successfulcontract negotiation with Christie's in 2008, which raised the minimum hourly wage and added full-time union jobs; he has said he is seeking similar terms in his negotiations with Sotheby's.)

Sotheby's aggressive tactics may be due in part to Jackson Lewis LLP, the labor and employment law firm it hired to handle negotiations. One of the largest firms in the country, Jackson Lewis has a history of union avoidance and a reputation as union-hostile. (Last week, hundreds of teamsters and BMW employees gathered outside Jackson Lewis offices around the country to protest the firm's role in the car company's recent layoff of 68 workers in Ontario, California.)

Ide believes the lockout may have serious consequences not only for the art handlers, but also for the auction house itself. "What I am really concerned about is that they're bringing in a crew of temporary replacement workers," he said. "Sotheby's is not a museum — there's such a high volume of art that comes through there, and it really takes a lot of training to be able to handle it quickly without things being damaged." Phillips confirmed the temporary staffing, affirming that Sotheby's would be "open for business as usual": "Sotheby's is fully staffed and secure... We have an obligation to our clients to provide smooth and uninterrupted service and have made alternative arrangements," she said.

The union plans to "notify clients, dealers, buyers, museums, and other auction houses" about the recent turn of events, and will be attempting to "raise awareness" within other areas of Sotheby's as well, according to Ide. Before the lock out, "negotiations were just proceeding at a normal pace," he said. "We were just barely getting into the meat of things."