Workers Revolutionary Party - Museums taking strike action

The News Line: News Thursday, 30 May 2013 Museums taking strike action

PCS workers picket line outside the National Portrait Gallery earlier this year

Strikes by workers at museums and galleries across the country today kick off a long weekend of action against government cuts.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said yesterday that these strikes form part of a three-month civil service-wide campaign against Coalition-imposed cuts to pay, pensions, jobs and working conditions.

The action has involved weeks of rolling strikes among the union’s 250,000 public sector members since a national Budget Day walkout on 20 March.

Workers striking today include those at the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery; Tate Galleries in London and Liverpool; Department for Culture, Media and Sport headquarters; British Museum; and Imperial War Museum.

Tomorrow there will be walkouts at the Natural History, Science and Victoria and Albert Museums in London; and National Museums Liverpool where strikers will be forming a human chain around one of the main sites.

Staff from a range of other government departments and agencies will also strike tomorrow, including at the Land Registry, which was recently told it faces an increased threat of privatisation, and the Department for Transport.

On Sunday, the union’s members at English Heritage sites, including Stonehenge, will be on strike.

Last week, the union’s annual conference agreed to hold a fresh national strike towards the end of June if the government continues to refuse to negotiate on these issues.

Dates will be set at a later date and co-ordinated alongside other unions where possible.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said yesterday: ‘These strikes highlight the huge gap between the valuable work our members do and the contempt being shown to them by ministers who are imposing cuts and refusing to even talk to us.

‘Both in our cultural attractions that are known and loved around the world, and across the civil service, the government urgently needs to invest to improve services to the public and to help our economy to grow.’