Strikes Close French Museums

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Dec 3rd 2009 at 6:01PM

If you are traveling in Paris right now you might have some difficulty visiting local museums. Workers are at the city's top museums went on strike on Wednesday. The AP reports that the Pompidou Center modern art museum and the Musee d'Orsay were closed Wednesday and the Louvre was only partially open. At issue in the strike is a policy of not replacing half of retiring public servants. Meetings on Wednesday afternoon between union leaders and Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand did not yield any resolution.

The Louvre Museum and the royal palace at Versailles closed Thursday as the French museum workers' strike began to gather strength. The AP paints a scene of tourists gathered outside the Louvre unable to enter past the blockade of protesting workers. Workers at the Francois Mitterrand National Library in southeast Paris have voted to join the strike Friday. At this point it is not known how many workers are on strike. The culture minister has remained adamant that France cannot make an exception for museum workers in the sweeping government staff reductions and that the museums must find a way to survive with fewer employees.

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