Plimoth Plantation is starting a new season with an old problem: labor pains.
The living history museum depicting life at the time of the Pilgrims is engaged in a labor dispute. In the “off-season”, museum management withdrew recognition of the union which got federal labor regulators involved. It has also prompted the state’s largest teachers’ union to request of its members to reconsider field trips to the Plymouth museum.
Management says it withdrew recognition of the union because that is what the majority of the workers sought.
Union representatives say workers are looking for better job security, better pay, and increased safety.
The labor impasse comes just two years before the museum is set to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ 1620 arrival to the so-called New World.