PARIS — Employees on the Louvre Museum voted Monday to strike over working circumstances and different complaints, dealing one other blow to the Paris landmark and residential of the “Mona Lisa” after an embarrassing jewelry heist in October.
The CFDT union mentioned the vote was taken at a gathering of 400 staff on Monday morning and that they determined to strike for the day. Putting staff with flags, banners and placards blocked the museum’s iconic glass pyramid entrance.
The world’s most-visited museum didn’t open as scheduled and turned individuals away. A discover on the Louvre’s web site mentioned “the museum is closed for the second.”
“It is actually unhappy, as a result of I used to be actually trying ahead to this,” mentioned Lindsey Corridor, a bitterly upset would-be customer from Sacramento, California. She had been planning to benefit from the museum’s enormous assortment of artwork and artifacts with a pal, describing it as “a kind of life experiences you crave.”
“That is simply an epic assortment of artwork and one thing that each human ought to see,” she mentioned. “I can see the opposite aspect of it, like in case you are the person who works within the museum and the way that may be, like day after day after day.”
The strike vote adopted talks last week between labor unions and authorities officers together with Tradition Minister Rachida Dati. Labor leaders mentioned the talks had not alleviated their issues about staffing and financing for the museum that welcomes tens of millions of holiday makers annually.
“Visiting the museum has turn into an impediment course,” mentioned Alexis Fritche, common secretary of the tradition wing of the CFDT union.
For workers, the brazen daylight jewel heist crystallized long-standing issues that crowding and skinny staffing are undermining safety and dealing circumstances on the Louvre.
Police arrests subsequently snared the entire four-man team alleged to made off with $102 million worth of jewels. The gang used a basket raise to achieve the Louvre’s facade, pressured a window, smashed show instances and fled with items of the French crown jewels. A Senate inquiry launched final week mentioned the thieves escaped with barely 30 seconds to spare and pointed fingers of blame at damaged cameras, outdated tools, understaffed management rooms and poor coordination that originally despatched police to the flawed location.
In an announcement, the CFDT mentioned workers needs extra staffing for safety and to welcome guests, improved working circumstances, secure long-term budgets for the Louvre and management that “really listens to workers.”
Yvan Navarro of the CGT union complained that workers numbers have regularly decreased whereas customer numbers have elevated.
“Folks come to Paris to go to the museums. So the customer numbers go up, the tariffs and the costs go up, as a result of all the things is turning into costlier however the salaries and the numbers of staffers do not go up so clearly you attain a degree like at the moment, a day of anger,” he mentioned.
He mentioned the strike vote was unanimous. It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not the work stoppage will last more than sooner or later. The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays. Staff might meet once more on Wednesday to resolve whether or not to remain out or return to work.
Of their notice of open-ended strike action to Dati final week, the CFDT, CGT and Sud unions mentioned the Louvre was in “disaster,” with inadequate sources and “more and more deteriorated working circumstances.”
The Tradition Ministry mentioned Sunday that it has tasked Philippe Jost, who oversaw reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral after its 2019 fireplace, with a mission to suggest a deep reorganization of the Louvre following the findings of an administrative inquiry.
It mentioned Jost will provide suggestions by the top of February. He’ll work with Louvre director Laurence des Automobiles, who beforehand described the heist as a “terrible failure.”
