They are worried, and there is good reason: their museum will close for five years. Staff at the Pompidou Center in Paris are on strike again, and the museum was closed this Thursday, despite commitments from management.
The museum is to close gradually from 2025 until 2030 for major asbestos removal and renovation work. This period worries many employees, who demand guarantees on the sustainability of their position and their missions.
Draft Memorandum of Understanding
The management of the Parisian museum of modern art confirmed to AFP its closure on Thursday and the continuation of the strike. She said she was “confident” about “the continuation of the social dialogue initiated as soon as the strike notice was filed (for one month, renewable, Editor’s note) with staff (around a thousand) and their union representatives”.
At the end of a meeting on Tuesday between trade union organizations and the office of the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, negotiations led to a draft memorandum of understanding, according to the same source. “The 18 demands were studied point by point and commitments were made to address legitimate concerns,” added the management.
“Insufficient” commitments
Meeting in a general assembly Thursday morning, staff voted to continue the strike, deeming these commitments “insufficient”. In particular, they are asking for “written guarantees on the non-outsourcing of certain of their missions (reception agents, lecturers) and the renewal of certain contracts,” Nathalie Ramos, of the CGT Culture, explained to AFP.
“They also experience as a betrayal the fact that the redeployment of their positions is not done on a single dedicated site, but in several structures which do not cover all their missions, and fear a loss of remuneration,” she said. added. The draft protocol provides for a redeployment of agents at the Grand Palais, for restoration work and which should reopen in 2024, and on a new Ile-de-France center for conservation and creation of the Center Pompidou in Massy (Essonne) which should open in 2026, according to the same source.
The strike started on Monday, the day the museum was closed. Conferences planned for an exhibition devoted to the drawings of Pablo Picasso, for the fiftieth anniversary of the artist’s death, were moved to the Picasso museum which is located nearby, according to the CGT Culture.