{"id":433655,"date":"2025-12-08T16:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T16:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/433655\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T16:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T16:47:12","slug":"louvre-workers-plan-to-strike-over-work-conditions-after-crown-jewels-heist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/433655\/","title":{"rendered":"Louvre workers plan to strike over work conditions after Crown Jewels heist"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS (AP) \u2014 Workers at the Louvre Museum voted Monday for strikes to protest their work conditions, a ticket-price hike for non-European visitors<\/a> and security weaknesses that a brazen daylight theft<\/a> of France\u2019s Crown Jewels highlighted in October.<\/p>\n

In a letter announcing the strike action starting next Monday, which was addressed to France\u2019s culture minister and seen by The Associated Press, the CGT, CFDT and Sud unions asserted that \u201cvisiting the Louvre has become a real obstacle course\u201d for the millions of people who come to admire its huge collections of art and artifacts.<\/p>\n

The museum is in \u201ccrisis,\u201d with insufficient resources and \u201cincreasingly deteriorated working conditions,\u201d said the unions\u2019 strike notice to Culture Minister Rachida Dati. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe theft of 19 October 2025 highlighted shortcomings in priorities that had long been reported,\u201d the unions alleged. <\/p>\n

The robbery gang made off with loot worth an estimated 88 million euros<\/a> ($102 million). The museum director subsequently acknowledged a \u2033terrible failure\u201d in security. The thieves took less than eight minutes<\/a> to force their way into the museum and leave, using a freight lift to reach one of the building\u2019s windows, angle grinders to cut into jewelry display cases, and motorbikes to make their escape. <\/p>\n

The haul hasn\u2019t been recovered<\/a>. It includes a diamond-and-emerald necklace Napoleon gave to Empress Marie-Louise, jewels tied to two 19th century queens, Marie-Am\u00e9lie and Hortense, and Empress Eug\u00e9nie\u2019s pearl-and-diamond tiara.<\/p>\n

Upkeep of the museum\u2019s vast and historic buildings, which were a former palace for French royals, also hasn\u2019t kept pace with its success as one of France\u2019s leading attractions.<\/p>\n

A water leak on Nov. 26 damaged several hundred publications stored in the museum\u2019s library of works specializing in Egyptian antiquities. The damaged works included revues and documents from the 19th and 20th century, the museum said. The opening of a valve triggered the leak in a network of water pipes that are due to be replaced next year, the museum said.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Louvre also announced the temporary closure of some employees\u2019 offices and one public gallery because of weakened floor beams.<\/p>\n

In their strike notice, the unions said that antiquated facilities and insufficient staffing are impacting the visitor experience, forcing the closure of some displays. They demanded that resources be focused on building improvements and safeguarding the museum, its collections, visitors and employees. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a run-down museum which has shown its security weaknesses,\u201d Christian Galani, a CGT union official representing Louvre workers, said in an AP interview. He said the strike-action vote by employees on Monday morning was unanimous and that the planned rolling strikes risked forcing the museum\u2019s closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a change of gear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS (AP) \u2014 Workers at the Louvre Museum voted Monday for strikes to protest their work conditions, a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":433656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,201118,1033,171,156,57,6604,63,606,24963,159024,1607,67,132,68,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-433655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-christian-galani","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-international-news","16":"tag-jobs-and-careers","17":"tag-labor","18":"tag-labor-unions","19":"tag-louvre-museum","20":"tag-strikes","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115684969234091172","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}