A raise after a protest threat

While Diego Rivera worked on the Detroit Industry murals in 1932–1933, some assistants worked without pay, but one of the main assistants, Ernest Halberstadt, earned $12 a week. When he asked for $18, Rivera refused. Halberstadt threatened to walk in front of the museum and say the artist was “unfair to labor.” Rivera granted the raise to $18, although he did not speak to the assistant for a long time afterward. This was a threatened protest outside the museum, not a threat to tell the press; the source does not say that all unpaid assistants were then paid.