UK Museum Workers to Strike Over Pay in February
In mid-February, workers from the British Museum will strike for improved pay and working conditions, starting their action on February 13. This strike will coincide with a similar walkout by civil servants from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on Wednesday. Additional institutions, including the Wallace Collection and National Museums Scotland, are anticipated to participate, with around 500,000 cultural employees expected to join the movement. The strikes, led by the PCS Culture Group of the Public and Commercial Services Union, come after an overwhelming 86.2% vote in favor of this action due to insufficient pay raises amid rising inflation.
Key facts
- British Museum workers will strike for a week starting 13 February.
- DCMS civil servants begin strike action on Wednesday.
- Other striking institutions include Wallace Collection, Historic England, National Museums Scotland, National Museum of Liverpool.
- Half a million cultural sector workers expected to join.
- Strikes organized by PCS Culture Group, a branch of the PCS union.
- 86.2% of PCS members voted for strike action in November 2022.
- Government offered 2% pay raise against 9.2% inflation (December 2022).
- PCS led a 42-day strike at Tate Commerce in 2020 over redundancies.
Entities
Institutions
- British Museum
- Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
- Wallace Collection
- Historic England
- National Museums Scotland
- National Museum of Liverpool
- PCS Culture Group
- Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS)
- Tate Enterprises Ltd
- Tate Commerce
- A Better Guggenheim
- Barbican Stories
- Art Workers Italia
- BBK Berlin
- Za K.R.U.H. Croatia
- UAW Local 2110
- ArtReview
Locations
- United Kingdom
- London
- Scotland
- Liverpool
- Croatia
- Germany
- Italy