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By Gus Saltonstall

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — The Hispanic Society Museum & Library in Washington Heights has one of the world’s largest collections of Spanish art and literature — but it has been closed since 2017 due to renovations — and now its workers are on strike just a month before it is set to finally reopen.

The staff of the museum near Broadway and West 155th Street voted to go on strike beginning this weekend after they say the museum terminated the pension plan and certain healthcare premiums without raising wages.

The Hispanic Society’s offer to us is unfair,” the staff wrote in a statement. “We’re a small, dedicated staff that has worked under difficult physical conditions with constant staffing shortages.”

“We’ve accepted lower wages than we could earn at other institutions because of the benefits,” the staff, which unionized as part of UAW Local 2110 in 2021, added. “The contract they are offering makes our employment truly unsustainable.”