Members of the Prospect union at V&A’s East Storehouse have already secured a partial win without striking. The museum agreed to grant two paid 15-minute breaks per day to better accommodate toilet and water needs. However, broader pay demands remain unresolved, including a call for the V&A to become an accredited London Living Wage employer to ensure that even outsourced contractors are paid the current London living wage of £14.90 ($20.10) per hour. Dates for a strike over these complaints have not yet been announced.
Staff at the four RMG institutions in London—the National Maritime Museum, the Queen’s House, the Royal Observatory, and the Cutty Sark—claimed August 11 and 12 for their own strike. It is intended to put pressure on leadership around wages, Christmas closures, fixed-term contract policies, and training pathways.
Temperatures (and tempers) are already high after a heat dome settled over Europe and pushed museums to confront their inability to handle a changing climate. Only about 20% of homes across the continent have air conditioning versus closer to 90% in the United States. Even major institutions like the Louvre are unable to adequately cool their halls. The Eiffel Tower closed early on several days during the heatwave, while the Palais de Tokyo shut its doors entirely. Despite having temperature-controlled cases for artifacts, the British Museum does not have air conditioning across the building as a whole. Meanwhile, at the National Museum of the History of Immigration in Paris, entrance fees were waived and hundreds more visitors flocked to its chilled galleries than usual.
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