The director of the Brooklyn Museum announced in a letter on Friday that on behalf of the museum's leadership team, the 200-year-old institution would be laying off 10% of its staff in order to "realign" its budget and "scale" its program. Wilson Souffrant, union president of Local 1052, says this announcement came as a complete shock to the museum's employees. He says he learned about the layoffs just three days before the letter was made public. He recalls a phone call he received last Tuesday. "She says 'I just got a call from the museum lawyer, she informed me that here's going to be layoffs on Friday," he says. He says that he was asked to keep this information strictly "confidential," which he described as nearly impossible, as he thought about all of his coworkers who would be affected by this sudden decision. He shares that 19 of his union members and 28 other employees will be impacted to start. Not only is Souffrant concerned about the large scale of these layoffs, but he says the museum did not follow its contractually agreed upon protocol by properly alerting his union and giving them time to negotiate within the layoffs. He hinted that a staff meeting, held by the museum last Friday, was a "hail Mary" from the lawyers to alert the employees who are being laid off. Souffrant says he believes the intention initially was to lay off all 47 employees last Friday. The lawyer representing the museum is Shelby Silverman, of Kauff McGuire & Margolis. News 12 reached out for comment from her office, but the attempt was unsuccessful. Souffrant says Local 1052's contract with Brooklyn Museum specifically details protocol for layoffs. "Our contract calls for the museum to inform the union of any implementation of layoffs 30 days prior however, the museum never officially brought that to my presence," he says. He claims the museum also failed to honor seniority of the employees affected - something also noted in the contract. Souffrant blames the layoffs on the museum's "mismanagement of finances" and says they are placing their problems on the backs of his union employees, calling it "unfair." Souffrant says he is scheduled to meet with Silverman on Friday to speak about layoff negotiations - something he believes should have happened before last week's announcement.