Meow Wolf workers demonstrated in front of the Grapevine Mills mall Tuesday, citing concerns about pay amid the cost of living in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The group is asking for wages that match those of workers at the company's Las Vegas location after about a year of negotiations with the immersive arts and entertainment company.
Daniel “Moody” Joseph is a security officer with Meow Wolf and part of the union’s bargaining and organizing committees. He served as action captain of what he described as this week’s “informational picket.”
Joseph said Meow Wolf is an interactive art museum with an “Alice in Wonderland vibe” that he calls “very strange, very trippy, very, very fun.”
“I'm very lucky to work for this company, which is why I'm out here — because I love it so much,” Joseph added.
He said he hopes the company will “agree to go back to the bargaining table and really, genuinely, actually hear us out, and actually work with us with numbers that are not insanely offensive.”
Around 20 employees held signs and chanted at an intersection just off the highway. Some drivers honked as they passed through, with at least one person rolling down their window to express support for the demonstrators.
A spokesperson for Meow Wolf wrote in an emailed statement to KERA, “After negotiating for nearly a year, Meow Wolf and the Union have been unable to reach an agreement to date.”
The statement continued, “Meow Wolf remains committed to open, good faith dialogue and to reaching a fair, sustainable agreement that supports our employees and the guest experience.”
Meow Wolf is an interactive art exhibition with some similarities to other popular attractions like Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience and the Museum of Illusions. The flagship Meow Wolf exhibition launched in 2016 in Santa Fe, where the company is headquartered.
Meow Wolf has since expanded to Las Vegas, Denver, Grapevine and Houston. The company plans to open additional exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York City.
Last year the company went through two rounds of layoffs across multiple locations, citing lower visitation rates and the planned expansion into Los Angeles. Meow Wolf also laid off workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the Grapevine workers, Alexis Stewart, expressed concern about attaining livable wages in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“We think that us, the workers, are why a lot of people come and continue to come to this exhibit to interact with us, and we think that our hard work should be recognized and rewarded,” Stewart said.
According to Stewart, 100% of the unit has voted to authorize a strike. She says they hope it doesn’t come to that.
One former employee at the location, Fry Meeks, said workers are passionate about Meow Wolf, describing it as a company that’s “trying to do something different” and behave “more like a collective than a corporation.”
But Meeks said union members feel Meow Wolf has being going in a more corporate direction, especially after branching out into Texas.
“When Meow Wolf first came to Texas, one of their mission statements was that they wanted to change Texas, make it more like Meow Wolf, make it more of a collective and bring their ideals here,” Meeks said. “Instead, what we're seeing is them changing to become more like Texas.”
Meeks said some Meow Wolf employees have left for competing entities, like Netflix House Dallas, which is slated to open in December.
“Netflix is able to offer them higher wages, is able to offer them health care in this area,” Meeks said. “All of Meow Wolf's excuses that, like, that wouldn't work here — clearly it works here just fine.”
Got a tip? Email Andy Lusk at alusk@kera.org.
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