Museums facing strike in France

ArtsBeat reports: France’s major tourist attractions, including the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame and Versailles, could be shut down next week because of a strike over planned job cuts, the General Confederation of Labor union warned on Friday.

“We think awareness is growing in all the major public institutions,” said Franck Guillaumet, who heads the culture section of the union, France’s second largest. “This includes the Louvre, the Musée d’ Orsay, the palace of Versailles, the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame church.”

The General Confederation of Labor and seven other unions sent a joint letter to the Culture Ministry on Thursday evening, warning that they would go on strike on Wednesday, “in all the major institutions of the Ministry of culture,” if the government pursues its plan to reduce the budget deficit by replacing only one out of every two retiring civil servants.

“No to job cuts, no to reducing subsidies for public establishments, no to the financial disengagement of the state, no to budget restrictions,” the unions said in a statement.

Mr. Gullaumet, who attended a staff meeting at the Louvre on Friday, said “The workers there are anxious and seem motivated to rally the movement.”

The announcement came after a strike that kept the Georges Pompidou Center closed for a fifth day on Friday. Its staff is protesting the government’s plan to cut more than 400 jobs at the museum over the next 10 years.

More than 40 percent of the staff members at the Pompidou Center are older than 50, and the legal retirement age in France is 70.

“It’s outrageous,” said Eric Hervo, 50, a union member and stagehand who has worked at the Pompidou for 28 years. “The government is killing the French heritage. It is a complete disrespect towards a heritage that belongs to France and to the entire world. They are selling off something that belongs to the world. We work in difficult conditions,” he continued. “We don’t have enough people even to install a painting, how are we going to continue work if they cut jobs?”

Mr. Hervo said the strike could also affect shopping areas near the museums. “If the strike gets worse during Christmas time, this means a lot of shops near the Pompidou could shut down,” he said.

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