Prospect members at the V&A strike over fair pay
Prospect members who work at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) South Kensington site in London closed down the museum’s main entrance last week, as they took strike action on Friday 26 and Saturday 26 September in a dispute over pay and working conditions.
Prospect members at the V&A
The two days of industrial action saw staff join with their colleagues in PCS union, who also took strike action over a parallel dispute, to demand a fairer deal.
Prospect is demanding that the V&A:
- Deliver a minimum 4% pay increase for staff earning above the Living Wage
- Pay time-and-a-half for Bank Holiday working
- Become an accredited London Living Wage employer within 12 months
- Improve food provision at V&A East sites.
Prospect members closing down the V&A
Last week’s strike action covered South Kensington, but we remain in dispute at all satellite V&A sites in London – V&A East, V&A Storehouse and Young V&A – as Prospect members continue to press the V&A for improvements to pay and conditions.
Director of the V&A Tristram Hunt has continued to refuse to take part in any arbitration talks, and the V&A has failed to present any revised offer.
Addressing this directly as he attended the strike on Friday, Prospect General Secretary Mike Clancy said:
“If you get to this point as an employer, you’ve lost the plot. You’ve got a bunker mentality, and we’ve got to get them out of the bunker.”
Speaking to the workers on strike, he said: “You’ve got the complete support of Prospect, of PCS, and it shows what unions can do when they work together.”
Mike Clancy addressing our V&A members
In a separate dispute with V&A, Prospect recently won paid breaks for collections workers at V&A Storehouse, who had previously been unable to access toilet and drinking water facilities on shift.
You can see more photos from the latest strike action on our Flickr page.
Watch our Instagram reel to see Prospect members on the picket line, and see inside some of the V&A’s closed galleries.
