On Thursday, October 19, some 400 employees gathered in the basement of the Centre Pompidou to vote for the renewal of the strike they had started on Monday, October 16. A new general meeting scheduled for Friday will decide on the continuation of the action. The previous large-scale industrial action at the museum, in 2017, lasted 12 days.

For the last number of months, staff have been calling for their jobs and status to be maintained during the five years of closure, from 2025 to 2030, as well as their missions when it will reopen. At the heart of their demands, too, is the payment of Sunday and public holiday bonuses. "Five years of closure is a long time in an employee's career," said Philippe Mahé, secretary of the Force Ouvrière labor union, adding that "the consequences of the building's closure have been underestimated."

A number of different ways of redeploying the Centre Pompidou's activities during the closure have been found. The Bibliothèque Publique d'Information (Public information library) has found a new home in the Lumière building on Avenue des Terroirs-de-France, near Bercy Village. In the spring of 2024, an agreement with the Grand Palais is due to be signed, covering 2,800 square meters of exhibition space.

The staff to be transferred there will replace those who, until now, have been outsourced. Other staff will be redeployed to the new facility in Massy, south of Paris, scheduled to open in summer 2026. The 2,500-square-meter space will be used mainly for storage and will host two annual exhibitions based on the collections, as well as a live performance program.

For the staff, however, the situation remains unclear, compounded by a heavy workload linked to preparing to move collections and the increased organization of paying exhibitions abroad. Calling for the signature of a protocol meeting all 18 of their demands, the union was heard for four hours on Tuesday by Emmanuel Marcovitch, chief of staff to Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak.

At the culture ministry, it has been promised that the jobs of all permanent staff and civil servants will be preserved during the works, with each staff member being offered an activity and a place of work in keeping with his or her individual work level. According to the memorandum of understanding, which Le Monde has been able to consult, the Centre Pompidou is committed to ensuring that the total wage bill covers the salaries of all staff on permanent contracts, civil servants, certain fixed-term contracts and the "patronage" jobs required for international projects. Future work schedules should guarantee that existing staff will continue to receive their extra pay for working on Sundays and public holidays. Should this not be the case, management promises that a compensation mechanism will be put in place.

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