France - museum strike

Pompidou Centre strike ends ... for now

Article published on the 2009-12-17 Latest update 2009-12-17 14:08 TU

The Pompidou Centre
(Photo: Andreas Praefcke/Wikimedia commons)

Workers at the Pompidou Centre, Paris's huge museum of modern art, on Thursday voted to suspend their strike over planned staff reductions.

A meeting of employees on Thursday voted to suspend the strike, which has closed the popular cultural venue since 23 November.

But the CGT union says they plan to call a new strike in January.

Management say the museum is reopening on Thursday afternoon.

The industrial action, which started at the Pompidou Centre but spread to many other French museums, was called to oppose plans to slim down museum staffing levels as part of a plan to reduce the civil service pay roll.

Some museums went back to work five days ago.

But Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand refused to back down, leaving the dispute unresolved.