The Louvre Museum, in Paris, remained closed this Monday (15) after its employees began a strike on a rotating basis to demand better working conditions and urgent reforms, interrupting access to the most visited museum in the world at one of the busiest times of the year.
The move comes at a time when the museum is still recovering from and recent infrastructure problems, including a water leak that damaged old books.
The Louvre typically receives around 30,000 visitors per day. As the museum usually closes on Tuesdays, it will not reopen until Wednesday, when workers will have to decide whether the strike will continue.
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After unions warned of a strike last week, the museum remained closed this Monday at its usual opening time of 9am, shortly before a vote that confirmed the strike. About 400 of the museum’s 2,200 employees supported the labor action.
‘Due to a strike, the museum is closed today,’ said the Louvre on the X social network.
Working conditions
The strike, called by the CFDT, CGT and Sud unions, comes as a result of what they described as ‘increasingly precarious working conditions’ and insufficient staff numbers.
Unions said employees were suffering from ‘an ever-increasing workload’ and ‘contradictory instructions’, which prevented them from carrying out their duties properly.
The unions’ demands include the hiring of more permanent employees, mainly in the areas of security and visitor service, and the improvement of working conditions.
The unions are also opposing the 45% increase in ticket prices for tourists from outside the European Union, starting in mid-January. The increase aims to finance the renovations.
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‘We know very well that visiting the Louvre is sometimes the trip of a lifetime. Therefore, we don’t want to penalize visitors,’ Elise Muller, national secretary of the Sud Culture union, told Reuters.
‘Indeed, we feel we are the last to insist that the public must be able to visit a safe Louvre, a Louvre that has been neglected by its management for several years.’
Disappointed tourists
Some tourists went to the Louvre on Monday morning, despite the threat of a strike, and found it closed.
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‘We got here and saw them taking the timetable signs and turning them over, and one of them said the Louvre was closed,’ said Gretchen Johnson, an American tourist from Texas.
‘So we went over there and asked, ‘When are you going to open?’ He said, ‘Probably not this morning, certainly not this morning.’
Melissa Frisvold, also from Texas, said: ‘As tourists, we don’t want to interfere with your politics. We just want to be friendly. So we understand when people need to go on strike.’
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(Reporting by Benoit Tessier, Lewis MacDonald, Noemie Olive, Lauren Bacquie, Mathieu Rosemain and Dominique Vidalon)
