There was a growing sense of weariness at the general meeting of Centre Pompidou staff on Monday, November 27. The 140 or so staff gathered voted once again to renew the strike, launched on October 16 in response to the uncertainties surrounding their fate during the construction of the Paris facility, scheduled to take place between 2025 and 2030. But six weeks after the start of the industrial action, everyone was fading. "Our colleagues are tired, demotivated, desperate," lamented a receptionist. "There's a bit of a slack period, it's been a long time," admitted a representative of the Union Nationale des Syndicats Autonomes (UNSA). "We'll see how to activate the strike fund before Christmas."

The whirlwind visit by Paris Communist Senator Ian Brossat, who wrote a letter to Minister of Culture Rima Adbul-Malak on the same day, certainly cheered up the troops, as did the unexpected rallying of agents from the Bibliothèque Publique d'Information (a public library within the Centre Pompidou), who themselves filed a strike notice last Thursday. "But we can't close down every day. We have to go on strike by rotation, with targeted actions," said Philippe Mahé, Force Ouvrière (FO) union secretary of the Centre Pompidou staff. But there was no question of giving up. "They're counting on us running out of steam, so we need to organize disorganization, create chaos!" urged Vincent Krier from the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) union.

Both the management and the Culture Ministry have adopted a status quo strategy. And everyone pointed to the "strong commitments" obtained by the unions following seven meetings: the maintenance of pay levels and schedules, an increase in the training budget for staff, and a guarantee that each member of staff will return to his or her post or another corresponding to his or her skills when the museum reopens.

But the ministry does not intend to give up on the two main sticking points: The employment ceiling and the non-outsourcing of services and missions demanded by the unions, bearing in mind that a quarter of the staff will be retiring in the next five to 10 years. "It is too early to freeze the organization of the establishment at its reopening, scheduled for seven years from now, when the Centre Pompidou's projects are in full development and expansion," said Abdul-Malak, in a letter sent on November 15 to all staff.

This all-encompassing development, which is putting a strain on the collections, is no less worrying for the staff. "How do you expect our heritage conservation mission to be fulfilled, with works of art on the move even more and claims on the rise?" asked the union in a letter sent to the minister on November 21. "The Musée National d'Art Moderne's collection is suffering: Numerous claims due to incessant loans and the exponential increase in off-site projects are doing permanent damage to works that make up France's heritage."

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