On Monday night, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will play host to one of the biggest fund-raising events and starriest parties of the year: the annual Costume Institute Benefit or, as it’s been known for years, the Met Gala.
The event, which raises millions of dollars for the museum’s self-funding fashion wing, has become known for its audacious red carpet, with a highly exclusive guest list handpicked by Anna Wintour, the longtime Vogue editor and Condé Nast executive.
But this year’s event has been unusually shadowed by drama. The union representing employees of Condé Nast publications including Bon Appétit, GQ, Vanity Fair and Vogue escalated the stakes in its long-running contract negotiations on Saturday, telling the company in a video posted on X that if management didn’t meet the union at the bargaining table, its members would “meet you at the Met.”
But the possibility of a work stoppage and picket line during Vogue’s biggest night was averted early Monday morning, when Condé management and the union reached a tentative agreement on the terms of a contract. “We made a commitment to do whatever it takes to get our contract,” Mark Alan Burger, Vanity Fair social media manager and a member of the Condé Union bargaining team, said in a statement. “Our pledge to take any action necessary to get our contract, including walking off the job ahead of the Met Gala, and all the actions we took this week, pushed the company to really negotiate.” (Last week the New York Police Department said it was prepared for any demonstrations that might arise, adding that there were no street closures planned and that the police would have “an adequate security deployment.”)
