Louvre Staff Vote to Continue Strike

News Louvre Reopens After Crown Jewel Theft Rachel Kubrick

Staff at the Louvre Museum in Paris voted unanimously this morning in favour of continuing the rolling strike which shuttered the museum’s doors on Monday.

The industrial action is jointly conducted by French trade unions CFDT Culture, SNMD-CGT: Syndicat Culture Musées et Domaines, and SUD Culture Solidaires, and represents approximately 400 staff members.

Workers held signs and waved union flags outside the glass pyramid on Monday morning, calling for ‘decent’ working conditions, increased salaries and staffing, and voicing their discontent against the ‘dilapidated’ state of the building.

The strikers also expressed frustration over a new budget that will raise entry fees for non-European Union citizens by 45 percent, from €22 to €32. The price hike comes with the hope of raising €15–20 million each year to pay for much-needed renovations.

The three unions announced their intent to strike on Friday in an open letter addressed to French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, as a ‘last line of defence before collapse’. The letter disparages the new budget and declares that the proposed pricing scheme ‘tramples on our republican history and the founding universalism’ of the museum.

The demands include an overhaul of current employment policies such as precarious contractual positions, understaffing in security and reception departments, and pyramidal management structures that have resulted in ‘absurd decisions’ and ‘organisational failings’ regarding safety and security.

A museum spokesperson declined to comment, noting ‘the negotiations are ongoing and being conducted at the ministerial level’.

The strikes follow a difficult few months for France’s national art museum. In October, the Louvre was closed for three days after a daylight heist of eight of the country’s crown jewels, valued at around €88 million.

The museum made headlines again earlier this month when an administrator revealed that between 300–400 research books in the Egyptian department’s library were damaged by a pipe leak in the ceiling.

According to the Agence-France Presse, hundreds of tourists queued at the museum early on Wednesday morning in the hopes that it would open to visitors. The Louvre is the world’s most visited museum, welcoming 8.7 million visitors in 2024.

Louvre director Laurence des Cars is due to appear before the Senate’s Cultural Committee later this afternoon as legislators continue to investigate the Louvre’s security failures. —[O]

Main image: Louvre workers strike on 15 December 2025. Courtesy Valerie Baud of CFDT.